Carving Out a Future
by Dreamfall
Summary: Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen.
1. A Couple Drinks

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 071-River

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

* * *

**Chapter One  
A Couple Drinks**

Kaylee stepped out of the bar and staggered as she released the heavy door. She caught herself quickly; she'd only had a couple drinks after all. Or maybe it was a couple too many, she admitted to herself as she looked around, trying to remember the best way back to the ship. Not that she was _really_ drunk, but she'd been celebrating a great deal she'd found on a water purifier/pump just as theirs was getting to the point of being dangerous. So far they'd just lost pressure, but they were going to start having real water quality problems if it didn't get replaced soon. She'd had it delivered and would install it while they were in the air tomorrow, but had stayed to have a couple drinks with the seller. And then a couple more with the cute farmer with his big blue eyes who kept offering to buy her top offs. Seemed awful rude to refuse. But Mal would start worrying if she wasn't back soon, and it didn't do to worry the captain. 'Specially not when he'd already wanted her to take Jayne with her as a bodyguard, and she'd barely convinced him she could take care of herself.

Three men with grubby coveralls were laughing loudly as they walked down the street towards her, and Kaylee edged to one side so they could pass without changing formation. Instead, they drifted with her, neatly blocking her path.

"Hey, pretty lady, lookin' fer a bit o' fun?" the middle one asked, his voice too clear to have had very many drinks.

"'Fraid not, boys," she answered, keeping her voice cheerful despite the unease that was fast dissipating her pleasant haze of alcohol. "Can't keep the cap'n waiting."

"Aww, c'mon, honey," he whined. "Captain's got ya every night, if'n yer on the ship -- we just got this one shot." His hand shot out, grabbing for her breast, and she shrank back, drawing in a breath to scream. But the fist in her stomach from the one on the left made the breath leave again with no more sound than a soft _whuff_, and the big one on the right grabbed her, pinning her arms to her sides with one long arm and covering her mouth with the other hand.

Fear blossomed into terror, and she began struggling wildly. She kicked out, catching the speaker between the legs. He whimpered in pain but recovered more quickly than she expected, hissing, "You're going to regret that, little girl."

"You know," a strangely accented voice murmured from outside their little ring, "I don't think she will. I think it's one of those actions she'll always look back on with satisfaction and even -- dare I say it? -- a measure of glee. Let her go," he added, voice suddenly cold.

They'd all turned to stare at the speaker during this speech, even Kaylee, as much as he could with her head pinned by the foul-smelling hand. He was of medium height with dark hair. In the dim light, she couldn't really make out his eyes too well, but she was pretty sure one was quite a bit lighter than the other. He was dressed in loose pants with a ton of pockets in them and a Hawaiian shirt that could easily have been swiped from Wash's closet. If it wasn't for his expression of calm certainty unmixed with any sign of fear, he would have looked completely innocuous.

"You gonna make us?" the man who'd been talking all along sneered, straightening to stand about three inches taller than her rescuer.

A hint of a smile touched the stranger's lips. "Only if you don't let her go without me making you."

"Not plannin' on lettin' her go till we had some fun, are we boys?" Grunts of agreement from the other two.

"No? Then by all means-- let's have some fun."

And then they were fighting, rescuer, speaker, and puncher, while the last one kept his grip on her, watching. Even to Kaylee's inexperienced eyes, it looked like her attackers were over-matched. And, she realized, she wasn't even helping -- just sitting still like a fancy girl who didn't grow up with three brothers! She bit down as hard as she could on the flesh of the hand over her mouth, and was rewarded with the taste of blood, a loud curse, and the hand jerking away. "Mal!" she screamed, hoping some of the crew was still around and nearby. She bent her knees and pushed off hard against the ground, throwing herself and her attacker back against the wall. His grip slackened slightly, and she lifted her knees to her chest, the sudden dead-weight tearing her from his arms. She fell hard, but scrambled up and away from him. "Zoë!"

The man stalked towards her, then stumbled as her rescuer leapt on his back, one arm pressing back on his windpipe, the other fist bashing into his temple. The other two were already down, she realized, but still she yelled, "Jayne!" as she kicked her attacker in the stomach. The pair fell together, and she kept kicking as her rescuer drew clear, weight balanced, looking for the next most immediate danger. He relaxed slightly as he realized they were all down, and then spun at the sound of running footsteps behind them.

Kaylee finally stopped kicking her unconscious victim as she saw Jayne barreling up the road towards them. Never in her life had she felt happier to see the big merc, and she threw herself forward at him. He caught her in one comforting arm, the other hand holding one of his smaller guns. He looked over the scene, then growled, "You tellin' me I ran out here and still missed the gorram fight?"

"'Fraid so," Kaylee said with a watery giggle before turning back to her rescuer. "Thank you so much -- er -- I don't even know your name!"

"Xander," he replied with a grin. "Glad I could -- fuck!"

Even as he released the ancient curse, before Kaylee even had time to be surprised by it, he threw himself at one of the downed attackers, there was a bark of a gun discharging, and Xander changed direction, spinning and crumpling, a dull crack sounding as skull hit pavement. Another gunshot, and the attacker was dead, Jayne's weapon trained on him.


	2. Talkin' Nonesense

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 071-River

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

* * *

**Chapter Two  
Talkin' Nonsense**

The man struggled to rise, one hand pressed to his side, trying to stop the flow of blood, and Kaylee rushed to him. "Gos se! Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he murmured, swaying slightly as he finally managed to stand.

"How'd you see that comin'?" Jayne demanded. "_I_ didn't see it 'till just after you did!"

"Caught a motion in th'corner of my eye," Xander said, slurring slightly. "S'good for that." He looked around. "Best get goin' 'fore th'other two wake up." He stumbled towards the wall.

"Um-- there's nowhere to go that way," Kaylee pointed out worriedly.

He shot her a dirty look, stooped, and grabbed the shoulder strap of a dark duffle bag, the weight of it swinging him around as he slung it over his shoulder, grimacing in pain. He grinned at her triumphantly and then stumbled again, dropping to one knee, his face twisting into a mask of pain as he mouthed archaic curses.

"We've gotta get him back to the doc," Kaylee said, turning urgently to Jayne.

He glared back at her. "You gone mad? We can't be bringin' strangers back to th'ship! Specially not to the doc!"

"He's not a stranger-- he rescued me!"

"'Sides, we're shippin' out first thing in th'mornin', and the doc can't patch him up that soon!"

"Then we'll have to take him with us."

He stared at her blankly.

"I'm not letting him die, Jayne! Not when it's my fault he's hurt!"

"We can't just take a man off-world without so much as a by-your-leave! 'Specially not when we don't want him noways!"

She glared at him a moment longer, then dropped to her knees next to Xander. "Xander." He looked blearily over at her. "You wanna go off-world a while? You can send a wave later, let folks know what to do with your stuff till we get back."

"Leavin' m'stuff?" he murmured, a frown between his brows as his fingers tightened on the bag's strap.

"We'll take yer bag. Just can't go lookin' fer nothing else. We really gotta get you to the doc, Xander," she said, taking in the amount of blood flowing through his fingers. She undid one buckle of her coveralls so she could reach her shirt to rip off the bottom several inches.

"Else?"

"Well, don't ya got nothin' more'n what's here?"

"No." He paused. "Yes? Um. Can you repeat the question?"

"Boy's got a ruttin' concussion. Won't get no sense from him," Jayne said, seemingly more interested in leering at the strip of skin revealed before Kaylee refastened her coveralls.

"Xander," she said, folding the strip into a thick pad. "Can you leave this world for a little while? Few weeks maybe?"

"Never tried," he admitted. "Slipped time once, but never really left f'r it."

She groaned, gently lifting his hand enough to slide the pad underneath it. "Gotta try to staunch this a bit. Try to focus just fer a sec here, Xander. Would it cause you any trouble to go off-world with our ship for a couple weeks?"

"Don' think so."

"Good enough. Help me get him up, Jayne. Xander, you hold that pad tight -- don't want you bleeding to death before we reach the doc, dong ma?"

"Huh?"

"Just hold it. I need a hand here, Jayne."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "I'll get 'im there, but he's not goin' onboard 'less you convince Mal."

"Hate havin' bullets in me," Xander commented.

Jayne snorted in amusement as he crouched to wrap Xander's free arm about his shoulder, put his own around the other man's waist, and levered him to his feet. "You ain't the only one. C'mon."

Kaylee grabbed the bag. She stumbled a bit under its unexpected weight, but managed to follow in their wake.

"Wish Dawn was here. Fine hand with tweezers, Dawn," Xander muttered. "Once got a hundred seventy-three Korzic spines out of my back. Spike had t'hold me down."

Kaylee sent Jayne a wide-eyed look, and he shrugged. "No idea."

"Prolly let him lick the bowl," he said, voice fading as he stumbled against Jayne's side.

"Wake up, Xander, no passin' out with a concussion," Kaylee said urgently. "Tell me about Dawn. Where's she at now?"

He turned his head to look at her blearily. "Dead," he said, tone completely matter-of-fact, even faintly surprised at being asked. "They're all dead. The whole world. And the records lost so I don't even know when or how or why they died."

Jayne stopped dead in his tracks. "His whole _world_ got killed? Kaylee, this is trouble we don't got no need of."

"Not lettin' him die, Jayne. C'mon, he's fading fast. Probably not talkin' sense anyway -- people always talk crazy when they have concussions."

The blood-soaked pad dropped to the ground, and she looked up at Xander worriedly. His head lolled bonelessly. "Gos se! He's unconscious. We have to get him out of here _now_, Jayne!"

"Yeah, okay. Let's go, then," he muttered, swinging the other man up into his arms and starting for the ship at a jog-trot.


	3. Reaching Serenity

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 071-River

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**Oh!** Just, fyi, this is by far the shortest chapter. I promise, none of the rest are quite this brief. Seeyas!**  
**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Three**  
**Reaching Serenity**

"Doc!" Kaylee shouted as soon as they were within hailing distance of Serenity. "Simon!"

"What's all the ruckus about?" Mal demanded, one hand on his pistol as he stepped out onto the ramp, looking tired and disheveled but ready for anything. "Who's hurt?"

"Xander," Kaylee answered, following quickly as Jayne moved smoothly up the ramp and into the cargo bay.

"And why are you bringin' him onto my gorram ship?" he shouted.

"I got attacked and he saved me. Only when we thought they were all knocked out, one wasn't, really, and he shot, but Xander threw himself at him, and got shot! We've gotta fix him, Mal, it's all my fault!"

"That so?" Mal asked, eyes flickering towards Jayne.

"Near enough as makes no nevermind. I wasn't there for the start, but I caught the end okay. And it's true enough he took the bullet -- wasn't aimed for him, neither. Not sure if it was meant for Kaylee or for me, but if he'd stayed put, he wouldn't've caught it," he admitted begrudgingly. "'Course, might be we wouldn't've either -- I saw it near as fast as him, and prob'ly coulda taken the hwoon dahn 'fore he fired if the kid wasn't in the way -- spoiled my shot."

"Might not've been in time," Kaylee stated. "He saw him first. Don't matter now anyway. Doc!" she shouted again.

"But we 're leaving first thing," Mal said, tone already somewhat resigned.

"We'll be back b'fore long," Kaylee pointed out. "Always do wind up back on Persephone. We can drop him off then."

"Might not matter anyhow," Jayne added cheerfully as Simon finally moved through the door, tucking in his shirt. "Got a bullet in his gut, left a ruttin' impressive trail of blood on th'way here, an' he's got a concussion. Went unconscious a couple minutes back. Chances are he'll die anyway."

"Lao tyen yeh," Simon exclaimed. "Get him to the infirmary -- I'll see what I can do."


	4. Strange Scars

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 041-Doctor

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

* * *

Chapter Four  
Strange Scars**

They moved through the halls to the infirmary, Zoë and Wash joining them as they passed the crew quarters. Zoë looked perfectly groomed and alert, as per usual, but Wash's hair was a mess, his bright yellow-and-blue shirt was buttoned crookedly, and he was looking blearily at them. "What's goin' on?"

"Kaylee got herself into a situation," Mal replied tersely. "Guy helped her out an' got shot for 'is trouble so she brought him back here to get fixed up. Simon, you keep your sister away from him, dong ma?"

"Yes, of course," Simon said absently, opening the infirmary door and waving Jayne through. "Set him down, please."

Jayne obeyed and then backed off, turning to listen as Kaylee started telling her story again, with more details this time. His expression darkened as she got to the point about shouting for help. "Yeah! An' how come you was shoutin' first fer Mal an' Zoë when a'course I'm the one'd do you the best good?"

"Hey--" Mal started.

Kaylee shot an apologetic smile at Jayne, eyes never completely leaving the proceedings inside. "Figured if any of ya heard me shouting, it wouldn't much matter what I was screaming-- you'd come save me. Didn't go meanin' to hurt your--"

She cut herself off, eyes widening, as Simon finished slicing the seams of his patient's shirt and carefully peeled it off of his chest. The others all turned to see what had caught her attention, and there was a moment of total silence among them, though Simon continued with his work -- he didn't spare a glance for anything but the wound he was currently working on.

It wasn't the quantity of scars that was shocking to the others. The border was a dangerous place, and everyone knew a couple folks with more scars than whole skin. But these scars were ... strange. Only one on his left shoulder looked like a bullet's entry wound, which were what they'd seen the most of over the years, and there was a meager handful that were almost certainly knife wounds, but those were in the minority. More _could _have been from a knife, but if so they had to be some pretty strange knives. There were several sets of parallel marks that looked almost like they were left by some sort of claws of various sizes, a couple that looked like bites from animals of some sort that Mal hoped he'd never run into, a couple splattered sections that suggested acid burns, and one double puncture at the point where shoulder met neck.

"Think he was running with a barbecue fork?" Wash asked after a minute, offering a joke to break the tension.

Mal snickered. "Lucky he didn't poke his eye out." Jayne laughed, but the others just looked at him funny. "What? Nobody else's mother ever said that? 'Don't run with that'," he added in a nasal tone.

"'You'll poke your eye out'," Jayne chimed in for the rest.

Amusing though your antics undoubtedly are," Simon interrupted, "Would you all be so kind as to bizui! I'm trying to save a life here! Mal, I need your assistance here, please. Hold him steady. I need to get this bullet out before he loses too much blood. Might need a transfusion. Kaylee, remember how I showed you to type blood? Check it out, please, we'll see if any of us can give it."

Mal moved forward efficiently, for once not complaining about being on the receiving end of orders on his ship. In a medical emergency, Simon outranked him. Unless, of course, there was other trouble going down as well.

Kaylee edged forward nervously, found a swab in the second drawer she checked, dabbed it in the blood, and then squeezed a drop onto a small plastic device. "B," she finally offered.

"Good enough. Zoë, Jayne, you're both his type -- I might require a donation from either or both of you. Grab a bite to eat if you haven't in the last couple hours, and keep yourselves available."

Zoë nodded sharply, and headed for the kitchen, Wash trailing along behind. Jayne scowled. "Do I gotta?"

"You brought him," Mal stated unsympathetically. "You bleed for him."

Reluctantly, Jayne slumped into a chair out of the way, glowering. Simon and Mal ignored him, continuing their work, and Kaylee perched on the counter, watching the procedure nervously.


	5. Familiar Stranger

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 027-Fear

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

* * *

**Chapter Five  
Familiar Stranger**

Two days later, sounds of movement drew Simon's attention from the terminal he was working at, and he moved quickly over to the bed as he saw the man shifting. Wary eyes opened, one dark brown and the other so light it was almost yellow. They shifted around the room and finally landed on Simon. The man tried to speak, but no sound came out.

"You're awake! I was beginning to worry. Here, let me get you some water," Simon said, suiting word to deed as he filled a tall glass and held it to the man's lips.

Xander turned his head weakly away and rubbed the moisture off his mouth with the back of his hand. "You Initiative?" he asked, managing to force the words out even without accepting the drink.

Simon's brow furrowed in confusion. "Initiative? I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with..." he trailed off. "I'm Simon. Ship's doctor for Serenity, a trade ship. You got shot helping our engineer, and she brought you back here for healing.

Mismatched eyes drifted closed, and a long sigh escaped the man. "Right. I remember. 2517." Without reopening his eyes, he reached out with one surprisingly steady hand, took the glass from Simon, and drained it. Finally, he opened his eyes again, expression shielded.

"Well," Simon said. "I should probably tell Mal you woke up."

"Mal?"

"The captain."

"Bad," Xander murmured thoughtfully.

"In Latin," River agreed.

Simon looked over sharply to where she was perched on the counter, arms hugging her knees, big eyes locked on his patient. "I didn't see you come in," he said, trying to keep the panic from his tone. "You're not supposed to be in here."

"The Sleeper awoke," she stated.

Xander's gaze sharpened on her, then his eyes widened slightly in surprise for a moment before he got them back under control. Simon just offered her an attempt at a smile. "That's right, mei-mei, after two days, now he's awake."

"It was longer," she disagreed. "Longer and colder and darker and far, far lonelier."

Eyes locked on his sister, Simon didn't catch Xander's shiver or the haunted look that passed through his eyes. "Just two days, mei-mei. Kaylee brought him in just before we left Persephone. Now, since he woke up, why don't you go get the captain."

She smiled, jumped down from the counter, and started for the door. Then she paused and turned back to Xander. "Don't worry. He's closer than you think," she said, then cast him an innocent smile, turned, and skipped away, arms swinging.

Xander stared after her, confused. "He? Who?" he asked, turning to the doctor.

Simon sighed. "You'll have to forgive her. She's -- she's butai zhengchang de." The total incomprehension in his patient's eyes made him shrug. "She's had a rough life," he elaborated.

The two just looked at each other for a long moment, then Xander shrugged. "Okay."

"That's it?"

"I doubt it, but it's none of my business," he responded calmly.

"Right," Simon said slowly.

A more or less comfortable silence fell until River danced back into the room. "Here they are!" she crowed, crossing over to Xander and sitting on the edge of his bed.

Xander turned to the door, a polite smile on his lips. It vanished as Mal reached the doorway, Zoë, Jayne, and Kaylee arrayed behind him. With startling speed, he rose, thrusting River behind him. "You're dead!" he gasped, one hand grabbing a scalpel from the counter. "We killed you!" He dove forward, blade flashing.

With a startled oath, Mal caught his arm, still in the doorway so neither Zoë nor Jayne could get a clean shot. Before they maneuvered enough that a shot could be fired, Simon plunged a hypo into their visitor's neck, and Xander fell limp.

"What the guay was that?" Mal demanded, picking up the scalpel that had dropped from the man's limp fingers.

Simon carefully took it away from him, locking it into a drawer. "Put him on the bed," he said. "He should be out for a bit, but I thought fast-acting was more important than long-lasting, and he was pretty worked up, it might wear off as soon as within a few minutes. I'll put restraints on him.

"Why not just toss him out the airlock?" Mal shouted. "He tried to kill me for no gorram reason! Tama de!"

"Tell you one thing it was," Jayne said slowly and unwontedly seriously. "That attack was pure fear. Only saw that look on a face one time in my life. Some shee-niou hundan convinced this twelve-year-old boy I was gonna rape his kid sister. Kid came at me bare-handed, wearin' that look-- knew flat-out he was gonna die for it, but he'd rather be dead than watch what he thought was comin'." He lifted Xander as he spoke, and dumped him back on the bed.

"What did you do?" Kaylee asked, horrified.

He glared at her. "I ain't no baby-killer! I knocked 'im out and left 'fore he woke up." He turned his attention back to Mal. "What's weird 'bout this here is I saw Xander, here, fight. And while maybe you could take him two falls in three -- and maybe not, I didn't see him that long, he could be better'n that -- that's not enough difference for that -- despair's what the preacher'd call it. It don't make no sense."

"River?" Simon's concerned tone broke through everything else, and everyone turned to where he had finished strapping Xander to the bed and was now looking worriedly at his sister, who was huddled in the corner, knees drawn up protectively, staring at Mal in abject horror.

Mal, startled, extended one hand, stepping forward, as he murmured, "River? What is it?"

She shrank back from him with a whimper. "It was like the poem," she said. "Like Christmas pie. Stuck in your thumb and pulled out an eyeball and smiled while he screamed and screamed and screamed."

"He's got two eyes, River -- which one am I sposta've plucked out?"

Simon took a protective step in front of his sister. "Perhaps the one that was replaced a month or so ago -- and rather poorly, judging by the fact that it doesn't match?"

"You said he saw too much," River whispered. "Squish."

"I never said no such thing!"

"I don't hold with pokin' out eyes," Jayne stated. "Man sees too much, then kill him clean. But pokin' his eyes out -- t'ain't civilized, and I don't hold with it!"

"Since when are you civilized?" asked Mal, goaded. "And I didn't poke out nobody's eye! Seems the sort of thing a body would recall, and I've got no memory of any such thing!" He turned to the others. "You don't believe this go shi, do you?"

To his shock, Kaylee shrank back behind Zoë. She, at least, met his eyes. "Whatever you did, I trust you had your reasons, sir."

"But I didn't I _do /I _ anything!" He spun back to River. "I don't know what you think you saw, girl, but I never stuck out his gorram eye, and I'd thank you to tell 'em so!"

"Saw your face," she said softly, peering fearfully around Simon. "Felt your hand. Heard your voice. Felt your hate--" She cut herself off, a wrinkle of confusion rising on her forehead. "Not your hate." She glanced at Xander, then turned back to Mal, staring him in the eyes. "Not your hate," she repeated more firmly, her trembling stilling. "Not your heart, not your mind. Not you!" She suddenly threw herself around Simon, and Mal braced to protect himself from one of her crazy attacks, but she just collapsed against his chest, sobbing as she clung to him. "Not you," she repeated. "He looked like you and he sounded like you, but he wasn't you. Not you."

"That's right," he murmured soothingly, rubbing her back. He cast a vindicated glare over his shoulders at the others.

Zoë, at least, had the grace to look embarrassed. "Sorry, sir. Never would've doubted you, but for how you were joking about poking his eye out earlier."

"I was what?"

"With a barbecue fork, sir."

Mal sighed. "I wouldn't never've said it if I'd known he'd actually lost an eye."

"Plus, there was the other one," Kaylee said softly.

"The other what?"

"The eye you I _did /I _ shoot out."

Mal's jaw dropped. "You are I _not /I _ blaming me for Dobson! He'd just shot you, Kaylee! And it's not like I I _meant /I _ to shoot his eye out -- he was supposed to just be dead!"

"An' I understand that, cap'n. It's just that, well, it made this feel a little too real. And it was so sudden-like. I know you wouldn't really do nothin' like that."

"Right," he said with a sigh. "So it's just a matter of convincing I _him /I _ of this, afore he gets untied. Shiny."

"It'll be okay, cap'n. We'll s'plain it to him," Kaylee offered cheerfully.

"You've known me for years and when I explained it to you, not a soul among you believed me!"

"Well he doesn't know you at all, perhaps that will help," Simon said dryly. "At any rate -- it's time to find out. He's waking up."


	6. Identities, Mistaken and Otherwise

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 097-Bonds

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Six  
Identities, Mistaken and Otherwise**

Xander regained his senses quickly. Judging by the taste in the back of his throat and how his whole body felt almost numb, it had been a drugged stupor. He tightened the muscles in his arms slightly and felt the bonds. Strapped to the bed with medical restraints rather than ropes -- he tried to decide if that was a good sign or a bad one. He kept his breathing steady and his eyes closed as he listened to the discussion around him and waited through the slow seconds it took his short-term memory to return.

Oh.

Sheepishly, he opened his eyes as the doctor said something snarky. "At any rate, it's time to find out -- he's waking," the man added, noticing the open eyes.

Everyone fell silent, turning to stare at him, and Xander blocked out all of them except the captain, fighting back another bout of raw terror as he studied the all-too-familiar face. He looked defensive, feet braced, shoulders back, chin slightly raised. Protective, holding the doctor's little sister as she sobbed into his chest. And though his expression was guarded, Xander read sorrow and pain in it, not relevant to the current circumstances except inasmuch as it reinforced everything he had already figured out. "You're not Caleb, are you?" he said, the words more statement than question.

"Captain Malcolm Reynolds," he replied, voice stiff, a hint of relief in his eyes. "Kind of you t'come to that conclusion on yer own. What led you to it?"

"I'm not dead. Still have my remaining--" he broke off, shook his head. "Still have _both_ my eyes. Haven't been tortured. But the most telling thing is her," he managed to awkwardly point his chin towards the girl, noticing how both captain and doctor shifted slightly, seeming more threatening again at that motion. "If you were Caleb, you'd have killed her for touching you."

"Why's that?" the captain asked, one hand moving in an unconscious gesture of protection to cradle the back of her head. "Got something against her?"

"Against all women. And girls," Xander replied. "He was insane. Thought women were the cause of every evil in the world, and he made it his job to wipe them out." He closed his eyes against the familiar face with its unfamiliar expression. "He was very good at it," he added, startled at how hoarsely his voice came out.

"Shame you didn't work that out afore attackin' me with a scalpel. What with me comin' in with three women, and all."

Xander sighed, reopening his eyes. "I'm sorry about that, Captain. The resemblance is -- frightening." He hesitated a moment, and then added, "I'll understand if you can't trust me enough to let me free on your ship, but I wonder if you could, perhaps, lock me in a room rather than keeping me tied up, if it's going to be more than a few hours? Otherwise it'll take longer to recover from this than from the bullet."

"Spent a lot of time shot and tied up, have you?"

"I've lived in some interesting times," he said, unable to keep his bitterness from his voice.

"Haven't we all," Captain Reynolds muttered, a haunted look passing through his eyes. He turned his eyes down at the girl. "What do you think? Is he fakin' so we let him go, or are his intentions all peaceful-like?" he asked, tone deceptively light, as though not wanting Xander to realize how seriously he'd take her answer.

"The Sleeper sees," she stated.

Xander suppressed a wince while the captain rolled his eyes.

"S'what you get fer askin' the crazy girl," the big guy who'd been disappointed at missing the fight the other night pointed out. "I say let him go. That or toss him out the airlock, if you don't trust him."

"Much though it might fit rather appropriately with recent events, I'd prefer to find an alternative to explosive decompression," Xander offered.

"Ain't nobody getting decompressed, explosively or elsewise," said the girl he'd helped out, pushing her way into the room. "He saved my life, Captain, and he didn't hurt you none -- it was just an accident!"

"Truth be told, my reluctance to release your friend's got less to do with him rushin' me with a scalpel, and more to do with how he thinks he recognizes someone he shouldn't ought to have seen."

"I apologized for that!"

Captain Reynolds just looked at him, eyes narrowing slightly.

Xander sighed. "Would it help if I said I was sure she was a _different_ girl with very distinctive large eyes and an older brother, Simon, who's a doctor?"

The big guy snickered. Nobody else looked amused. "Not much," the captain stated.

"So this leaves us at a bit of an impasse, since it means even after you land you can't let me go if you don't trust me, since I could still report you. Which seems to leave us with the options of a.) death, b.) a lifetime of captivity, or c.) trusting me." He paused thoughtfully, then added, "Or d.) letting me go but cutting out my tongue and off my hands, but I'd _really_ rather not go that route, if it's all the same to you."

"Besides, compared to an eye, a tongue is cheap to regrow," Simon pointed out. Everyone turned to stare at him. "Not that we'd do that anyway! I'm just saying!"

"Yeah, but you said his eye wasn't no good, so mabbe that was all his money," the big guy pointed out.

"It's not?" Xander demanded, one hand jerking instinctively towards his face before it was stopped by the strap. "What's wrong with it? Is it going to stop working? I _like_ having depth perception!"

"Nothing like that," Simon assured him, glaring at the big guy. "It's just not very well matched, which is usually a sign of ... less than spectacular workmanship. I didn't notice any other signs, though. It should be perfectly effective."

Xander relaxed. "Oh. That. Not the doctor's fault." He turned back to the captain. "So what's it to be?"

"Wait, why are your eyes different colors if it's not the doctor's fault?" the girl he'd rescued asked, apparently sensing a story.

He glanced at her and offered a weak smile. "I'd actually rather discuss my future than my past at the moment. Particularly since my bladder's weighing in on the side of anything, as long as it's fast. If you're going to kill me, I'd really appreciate it if you'd do it while I still have some hint of my dignity," he added, turning hopefully back to the captain.

Before he responded, a guy with a friendly face and a bright white and blue Hawaiian shirt wandered up. "Nobody was in the dining room, so I figured Kaylee's hero must have woke up -- hey -- how come Kaylee's hero's strapped to the bed?"

"A case of mistaken identity followed up by a case of dead-on-true identity," the captain responded. "The first led him to attack me. As fer the second, well, it would've been a lot simpler if a certain yu bun duh doctor could follow simple gorram instructions like keepin' his sister away from the gorram stranger!"

"Speaking of which, could I recommend false names?" Xander offered. "I hear they're all the rage with fugitives."

The fighter snorted with amusement, but nobody else even cracked a smile. "I don't know how she got in!" Simon complained. "Last I knew she was reading in her room!"

He was answered with a snort.

The newcomer looked crestfallen. "We're not having killing talks again, are we? I don't wanna have anything to do with killing folks. 'Specially not folks who've saved my favorite mechanic's life."

The captain sighed. "And it's a fact he may've done just that, by the sound of it."

"Shouldn't think so," Xander offered. "Think he was aiming for the big guy -- probably thought he was more dangerous than me." He paused and then added thoughtfully, "Probably right."

He shifted uncomfortably. "_Please_ can you kill me or let me go? I really need to pee."

Kaylee giggled. "He don't act like a man planning to turn a little girl over to people who're gonna cut on her brain, cap'n."

The captain sighed. "Hey River," he said, again just a little too nonchalant. "What do you say? He planning to turn you over to the authorities?"

She looked up from his chest and giggled. "'Course not," she said dismissively. She skipped across the room and released the buckles, ignoring Jayne's yelp of, "Gorram it, girl!"

Knowing that the big guy, at least, could draw and fire far faster than he could move into cover, Xander stayed very still until the captain sighed and nodded approval. Then he rolled to his feet and looked hopefully at the captain.

"Head's through there," Mal said, pointing to a small door.

Xander bolted.


	7. Introductions

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 098-Travel

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**  
**Introductions**

When he emerged a couple minutes later, Xander looked far more relaxed. He looked at the still crowded room, and sat back down on the bed. "I think I pulled out those stitches, Doctor Tam. Sorry. It's my own fault for attacking the good captain, of course."

"Not gettin' no more of my blood!" Jayne stated, while the doctor moved forward to remove the bandage and check the would beneath.

"Lie back down," Simon said. "Let me take a look. Hopefully you haven't done too much damage."

The man obeyed, crossing his arms under his head and turning to look over at the others rather than watching as his bandages were removed. "I didn't realize I got any of your blood before," he commented, offering Jayne a grin. "I appreciate the loan -- if I can ever return the favor..."

"I'll keep it in mind, too," Zoë stated, raising one brow as she looked down at him, arm resting lightly on her husband's shoulders. "You lost a lot -- got a bit from each Jayne and me. If you get sick, of course, blame his."

"Hey!" Jayne complained.

"So Kaylee says yer name's Xander?" Mal asked doubtfully.

"Yeah. Xander Harris."

He nodded. "Not one I've heard. I'm Mal Reynolds, like I said. This's my first mate, Zoë, and her husband, our pilot, Wash. You met Simon, the doc, and River we both know you know who is. Kaylee, here, you met last night, and I guess you saw Jayne real briefly then, too."

The man nodded to each in turn, then blinked at the last name. "Jayne, huh? Never knew a man with that name before."

"Oh yeah," Wash interjected cheerfully. "There's a song and everything. _The man they call Jaaaaaynne_," he began, then dove behind his wife, as Jayne lunged for him. Zoë raised one brow, and the merc backed off with a growl.

Xander grinned. "There's gotta be a story there."

"Not one what needs telling," Jayne snapped, turning his glare to the man on the bed, and taking a threatening step forward.

"Hey, helpless under the doctor's knife here, no attacking!" Xander yelped, mostly joking, judging by the smile, jerking a bit as he pulled his arms out from behind his head to hold up protectively before him.

The doc raised his eyes from his work to level a glare at his patient. "Unless you want to rip these even before I'm done putting them in, _stay still_!"

Xander gave him a cowed look and settled back down.

Mal snickered. "So you got anyone you gotta wave back on Persephone?"

"Nope."

"You can just vanish and nobody will worry or nothin'?" Kaylee asked, surprised.

"I only got in a few days back. The motel I was staying at will probably be delighted to get rid of me before the week I paid for was up, and since I didn't leave anything in the room, no biggie."

"Shiny! So what were you doin' there, just for a week?"

He shrugged. "Finding the best way to leave, I guess. Didn't care for it. I've just been interviewing ships to figure out who to book passage on next, so I guess you did me a favor taking me up. Even not counting your work," he added, glancing down at Simon, then quickly averting his eyes again.

"Doncha even care where we're going?" Kaylee asked.

Xander shrugged. "Not much. There's only a handful of worlds I've been to so far, so I figure the odds are good you're not heading for any of them. And as for the rest, well, one's as good as another."

"Got a goal to see each one?" Wash asked. "I planned that once. Then I realized 'most all of 'em were about the same, and the best things out there were in between anyway."

"Nah, just waiting for one of 'em to feel like home," he said, starting to shrug, and then stilling at another glare from the doc.

Jayne and Kaylee exchanged a look, then Jayne burst out, "So it's true, 'bout your world?"

"What about it?"

"You said the whole thing died! That you didn't even know where or how or nothin'."

Xander blinked, though Mal thought he caught a hint of strain about the man's eyes as he said, "Must've been the concussion talking."

"Where'd you start out then?" Mal asked.

"Londinum."

That actually made the doctor look up, startled. "Really? I wouldn't have guessed -- I mean-- " he flushed.

"I seem more the border type?" Xander asked, a grin showing that he hadn't taken any offense. "Yeah, well, I had a bit of an unusual upbringing by any standards."

"So you're pro-Alliance then, bein' from Londinum," Mal said thoughtfully, keeping his tone carefully noncommittal.

Xander glanced at him. "Not so much. I've never worked against them, but I haven't worked for them, either, and I've had a couple bad experiences with government getting too involved in things best left alone in my life. The Alliance seems a little too 'you-shall-be-assimilated', if you know what I mean."

Mal glanced around to see if that had made sense to anyone else. "Can't say as I do."

A hint of a smile was quickly replaced by a look of total consternation. "Jesus, I'm the G-man."

"You're the what?" Kaylee asked.

"Is that some kind of special services?" Wash demanded.

He laughed, though it sounded a bit forced, and shook his head. "Nah, just a nickname of an old friend I just realized I'd become. Didn't get any of the pop culture references, and when he tried using the ones he knew, they were too out-of-date for anyone to get. Um. Right. Never mind. What were we talking about?"

"The Alliance," Mal said, leaning back against the counter as he stared down at the other man. His accent was strange, too -- not border, not core, not a single thing he'd ever heard, though it wasn't all that strong. Whole bundle of strangeness, this Xander.

"Right. They just seem a little too all-encompassing. I don't trust governments who don't have any competition -- too likely to decide the rules don't apply to them, start doing things they should stay the hell out of."

"Like, for example?"

Xander shook his head. "Haven't paid much attention to politics around here -- I don't have the faintest idea what they're likely to get themselves up to. I just know that with nobody to keep them in line, they're not likely to stay all that benevolent for long."

"'Around here'," Zoë repeated thoughtfully. "And just where could you be from that you had to worry about some government other than the Alliance? Because last I heard, it's the only one we've got."

The man shrugged. "Just a manner of speaking. It all goes back to the unusual upbringing thing."

"There," Simon interjected, tying off his bandage, and starting to put away his gear. "If you remain reasonably still for a time, that should hold you, Mr. Harris."

"Xander! Please! Otherwise, even knowing he's dead, I'll start looking for my father, and I _so_ don't need to think about him!"

Simon blinked. "I'm sorry for reminding you of your loss."

"No, no, not that. The loss is fine. It's the man I don't want to think of -- losing him was the best memory of him I have. Not that I was there, so it wasn't really a memory. But. Yeah."

Simon stared at him blankly for a long moment, then nodded. "Well... Xander, try not to go attacking anyone for a time. I'll want to check that daily for a bit, and you have to be careful to keep the bandages dry. If they get damp, let me know and I'll change them."

He nodded solemn agreement. "Will do. Where am I staying till you boot me off the ship, presuming you don't decide I'm too much of a risk after all and kill me? In which case, where am I staying till you kill me?"

Mal laughed again, and motioned for him to follow. "Go on to the dining area, everyone, I'll show Xander, here, to the passenger dorm, then we'll join ya. They're not big or nothin', but they're comfortable enough."

"Sounds fine, I don't need much," he said, standing up as the others started filing back out of the room. He jumped forward to touch Kaylee's arm lightly as she started out, and she turned, head cocked to one side in inquiry. "Did you bring my bag? Please, _please_ tell me you brought my bag?"

"Sure, it's right there," she said with a laugh. "Other side of the bed."

He turned to look, and signed with relief. "All my worldly possessions," he explained. "Some of this stuff was a pain in the ass to find, too -- I'd be sorry as hell to lose it."

Simon put out a hand as he bent to lift it. "Not for a couple more days, please, if it's heavy. Someone else can take it in for you." He turned to River, who was staring at the palm of her hand in intent fascination, and murmured, "Let's go get some dinner, mei-mei." When she gave no sign of noticing, he sighed, took her lightly by the shoulder, and led her out of the room.

Mal rolled his eyes and stepped past Xander to heft the bag. "Heavy. You carrying stones in here, or something?"

"Nah, metal mostly," he said with a laugh. "Woodworking tools. I'm a carpenter."

"Now that's somethin' ya don't see every day," Mal murmured, slinging the bag over his shoulder and preceding Xander out of the room. "Carpenter, huh? Don't know as I've ever met someone who just worked with wood -- known a fair few who know how to pound a nail and raise a house if'n it's called for, but makin' a whole profession of it seems a bit different."

"Yeah, I used to do construction, but I've come to like precision work better," he replied cheerfully. "Cupboards and chests, inlaid patterns. Picture frames, jewelry boxes, whatever. Made a cane for a friend who had some trouble with his leg. Jewelry every now and then, but I tend to prefer things with a bit of function, too."

"Where do you come by your wood?" Mal asked curiously, opening the door to one of the spare rooms and waving the other man through.

"Mostly I've worked small things lately, and I either find trees and harvest a couple branches myself or, if I want something I can't find on my own, or something big, buy it. I haven't found sources for everything I want, though. That's one of the things I'm hoping will come of traveling around a bit. That I'll find some more sources. I'd like to get back into the bigger stuff, rather than just glorified whittling, but I need to settle down someplace first. Can't keep planet-hopping if I'm going to have a worthwhile bench and be working on some good-sized projects. Too much stuff to move and most of the ships I've been on have had quarters a lot like this -- perfectly livable, but not close to big enough to set up a workshop."

Mal nodded understanding. "Guess you can get settled down. There's no Cortex connection in here. If you wanna send a beam or anything, ask one of the crew and we'll set you up."

"And monitor me, no doubt," he said cheerfully. "Oh don't worry, I don't mind. And I don't have anyone I need to contact anyway."

"Right. Good then. After sleepin' for two days, I'd bet you could eat a sou da-shiong."

Xander's smile in response looked a hint uncertain, and he said, "Definitely on the hungry side. I appreciate all this. Your taking me in as well -- I know you didn't have to fix me up when they brought me. You could've dumped me at the local hospital, or even just on the street. I've gotta think that to you I'm only a risk, so I really do appreciate it. And though I doubt you'll trust it, you've my word that I won't report the Tams or anything else I might see or hear on your ship."

"You suggestin' somethin'?" Mal demanded, stepping in threateningly.

"No, not really. But since I got to the outer worlds I've had discussions with quite a few crews of quite a few ships where I got threatened about revealing illicit cargo, and I never reported them. Well. Except once."

"Very reassuring," Mal drawled.

"Yeah. Well. Okay, if you're smuggling organs stolen from previously live children to sell to the sick rich in the core, I'll report you, too," he said, face twisting slightly with disgust at the memory.

Mal stepped back. "Willy Ryder?"

Xander shifted imperceptibly, rocking forward slightly onto the balls of his feet, knees flexing, hands opening slightly, very relaxed. "That was him. Friend of yours?"

"Seein' as you don't know me so well, I won't take offense at yer askin'," Mal said softly. "There's some folk near as bad as Reavers. Maybe worse, cuz they do it for money and in full possession of their minds. Did they catch the niao SE duh hwoon dahn ?"

A slow, predatory smile crossed Xanders lips. "They did."

"Good. Let's grab us a bite to eat."


	8. Dinner with the Crew

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 083-Picture

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Eight**  
**Dinner with the Crew**

Xander followed Mal into the dining room and found the others already arrayed about a long scarred wooden table. It was a nice piece, well made of good quality wood, but had clearly seen better days. It was badly scarred in places, and at least one leg looked like it wouldn't be standing straight any more at all if not bolted to the floor. Mal moved to the head, sat down, and started dishing up a plate of food, so Xander drew himself away from his inspection of the table and over to the empty spot between Kaylee and Zoë, settling himself down, moving a bit carefully in an attempt to not mess up his bandages.

Kaylee grinned a greeting at him. "Hey, Xander, did you find your room okay?"

Mal snorted from the end of the table. "I was showing him where it was, Kaylee, think I'm gonna get lost on my own ship?"

She laughed and shrugged. "Either way. We don't have a whole lot of options for food, but we've got protein in a variety of colors and flavors!"

"Or at least colors," Wash interjected. "I think the flavors are just for helping kids learn make-believe."

"Woulda been a bit different if th'Shepherd was still here," she added, forlornly.

"Well, he ain't," Mal said, a touch of harshness in his voice suggesting that this was a subject Xander wanted no part in any time soon.

"Thanks," Xander said, not responding to the undercurrent as he served himself from a couple different bowls. He'd had similar fare on quite a few other ships and was more or less used to it, though it would never be a favorite with him.

"If I might ask," Simon said uncertainly. "How did you recognize River and myself? Are there -- I mean-- are our faces becoming well-known?"

"Not really," he answered, setting down his fork as he turned to the doctor. "On Persephone there was a bounty hunter hanging around one of the ships I was thinking about leaving on. He was showing a couple pictures around, asking if anyone recognized you. To be honest, neither of you look all that much like the pictures, but, like I said, River's eyes are pretty distinctive."

The girl turned a wide smile on him. "Not so much as yours!"

He laughed. "True enough, these days at least."

"So why _do_ they not match, if it wasn't the doctor's fault?" Kaylee asked excitedly. "Since you don't gotta rush away for a bit, now."

He shrugged. "It's not really that interesting a story. When I was in high school I got --" he paused for split second, substituting the familiar lie for the truth. Usually it didn't take a thought, but for some reason he'd almost said 'possessed by a hyena.' Recovering, he finished smoothly, "sick for a while. Did something to my blood, according to the doctor, and the eye which started out matching perfectly changed a bit over the first week I had it. It doesn't bother me -- I'm just glad to have depth perception again. Mismatching is no big deal." Nobody seemed to notice the pause except River, who offered him a secretive smile, which, for an instant, looked like a feral baring of teeth before returning to a cheerful smile.

"Oh," Kaylee said, studying his eyes for a long moment.

"I've never heard of a sickness that had that effect," Simon said ...thoughtfully. "What was it?"

"Strange strain of a flu, is what they thought at the time. It never felt like that big a deal. When the eye thing happened, they did some more tests to figure out the details, and apparently there was a bit more to it, but I honestly don't remember the jargon. They said it wasn't likely to have any negative effects, and I stopped listening."

"Best thing to do with doctors," the captain agreed, shooting a look at Simon, who glared back.

Xander chuckled. "I tend to do it with experts of any sort -- I don't understand the bits they love to go on about, so they talk, I let it go, and everyone ends up happy."

"Have you always been a carpenter?" Zoë asked, eyes surprisingly sharp.

"Well, not always. It's not like it was a family tradition or anything, but I got into it pretty early on. I spent a few years looking for something I was good at before stumbling across construction. And then I got more interested in working with wood specifically."

"Reason I ask is that Jayne, here, was pretty impressed with how you handled yourself the other day. I don't much think of tradesmen when I figure who's gonna impress Jayne."

"Well, having a profession doesn't mean that nobody ever causes you any trouble," he offered. "Back in high school I got picked on a bit. Learned how to fight in self defense, though I still lose more than I win. Mostly I just try to stay out of trouble."

"Bully's musta been some different in your school," Jayne muttered.

"And you do that by helping out strangers who got themselves attacked three-to-one?" Kaylee asked doubtfully. "Sounds t'me like yer bein' a bit modest there, hero."

He flinched, then smiled, hoping nobody had noticed it. Mal and Zoë definitely had, he could tell by the sharpening of their gazes, but the others maybe not. "I'm no hero," he said. "I just don't like seeing people getting attacked like that. I was glad to help out. Besides, it was kinda fun fighting a couple people who _weren't_ a helluvalot stronger and faster than me. At least up until the bullet bit. That? Not so much of the fun."

Mal studied him for a long moment. "You may not be Jayne, here, but you don't seem a man who most would be all that much stronger and faster than. There a reason those you've had run-ins with were?"

Mentally kicking himself for the slip, Xander shook his head. "Just lucky, I guess. I'm used to being the underdog." He took another bite of food, and offered, "Hey, I think the red-brown really does have a bit of a meaty taste to it."

"Ooh, Kaylee, you found a man with some imagination," Wash said mock-excitedly. "Good for you!"

She grinned back at him. "Maybe he'll play dinosaurs with you, Wash. 'Sides, the protein's not all that bad. I found some chocolate-flavored a bit ago that really is chocolatey!"

"And how come we haven't had a chance to try it?" the captain asked.

She looked over at him guiltily. "I mighta ate it all. But I'll find some more!" she promised.

"You'd best! Especially after them strawberries you already took -- those were to pay for passage, and shoulda been divided up amongst the crew, Kaywinnit Lee!"

She hung her head guiltily. "But, cap'n, they were _strawberries_," she pleaded. "You can't, you just _can't_ expect me to give 'em away!"

Xander shook his head, backing her up. "Nobody could ask it of you. In fact, doing anything else would have been morally wrong -- giving fresh strawberries to people who couldn't begin to appreciate them as much as you did..."

Kaylee nodded so hard her curls bounced. "Yeah! They would've just swallowed them without even noticing, most like!"

"Here now," Mal said sternly, a hint of a twinkle in his eye as he glared at Xander. "No giving her excuses! She's gotta own up to the evil of her behavior!"

Glad that he wasn't the subject of conversation any more, Xander allowed himself to fade back into the background, only occasionally adding to the conversation and mostly not paid much attention by the crew. Zoë was the exception, he noticed. She kept watching him. River, too, periodically looked over to give him knowing looks, but he had the impression that for all that the others took what she said seriously when they knew what she was saying, the other times, when she said things that didn't quite make sense to them, they didn't try too hard to make themselves believe, so he didn't worry too much about what she saw. Nothing she could say about him that he'd prefer not said would be interpreted by the others as true. So he just sat back and enjoyed the company, if not the meal.


	9. A Rude Awakening

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 095-Cold

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

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**Chapter Nine**  
**A Rude Awakening**

He was cold. So cold. He ached all over, muscles cramped from staying perfectly still for so long, but he was so cold that if he moved he was certain that he'd shatter. If he unclenched his hand, his fingers would surely break off. If he shivered he'd vibrate apart like a jack hammer made of ice. If he drew in a breath, his lungs would break into a billion pieces. So achingly cold.

He didn't know how long he'd been like this, but it felt like eternity, felt like an instant, felt like -- he didn't know. Even his thoughts were slow and sluggish as though his synapses were frozen to slush and communicating with each other only unwillingly. He wanted to breathe, wanted desperately to take in a breath, but the knowledge of what it would do to him was too horrible.

Then, unexpectedly, there was a slight hint of warmth in his mouth, moving down his throat, into his lungs, and he felt them relax very slightly. Again, and he dared to inhale a single tiny breath. Another wisp of warmth, and he breathed a little more deeply, sucking air into his lungs and letting the warmth spread throughout him, feeling himself slowly thaw out.

A loudly cleared throat made his eyes snap open, and he found his view mostly dark, but Captain Reynolds, standing at the bottom of the ladder to his room, was bathed in dim light, glaring at him. He drew back his gaze to figure out what was blocking everything else, and found his view dominated by River, who was crouched over him, lips on his, eyes locked on his face in fascination as she blew warm air into his lungs.

Startled, he jerked back, away from River, nearly falling off the bed. "Jesus Christ! I didn't -- I'm not-- I wouldn't--"

"River Tam," the captain said sharply, interrupting his half-asleep protestations of innocence. "What in tah mah duh guay do you think you're doin'? What have I told you 'bout women crawl into men's beds without so much as a may-I?"

"They're probably wearing poison lipstick," she sing-songed.

"Yeah, well, beyond that! You ain't s'posed to be troublin' the passengers -- not even the non-payin' ones. Like t'give him a heart attack creepin' in and kissin' a man like that!"

The girl gave her captain a look of irritation. "I didn't kiss him!"

"River," he said in a tone of exaggerated patience. "I saw you. Your gorram lips were locked on him."

"I wasn't kissing him," she repeated, speaking slowly as though talking to a particularly slow child. "He was cold. Too cold to breathe, or his lungs could've shattered like a million little icicles in a wind storm. So I blew in some warmth to warm him up."

The captain looked doubtful. "Oh, and is that the way of it? The gorram ship's climate controlled, River! He ain't cold!"

"It was a dream," Xander interjected softly.

The captain's sharp gaze turned on him, eyes narrowing slightly. "Oh and it was, was it? For it to be like River says, it'd have to be one helluva detailed dream."

River paced over to him and kicked him in the shin.

Captain Reynolds howled and leveled another glare at her. "What the gorram hell was that for?"

"You're a yu bun duh shr sagwa! It was a memory," she continued more patiently. "I 'member it, too. Four days froze, then waking too fast, too cold, nothin' making any sense. I remember. And his was worse, worse, worse, worse, _worse_!"

Xander dropped his gaze slightly as the captain's eyes turned back on him. "You been in cryo, huh?"

"Yeah," he said. "Something like that."

"Care to tell me why?"

"I was sick," he stated. "My family couldn't cure me, and I would've died before they could work it out, so they put me on ice to send to people with better facilities." Which was practically the truth. Painfully close to the truth.

The captain stared at him as though trying to see into him. "That why River says it was worse than hers? 'Cuz you were sick?"

"I don't know," he started.

River giggled and shook her head, interrupting. "Cuz he wasn't in a cryo box. And cuz time stopped and didn't start up again, and it went on and on and he got colder and colder and colder as the centuries marched away from the ruins of the world."

The captain sent her an impatient look, while Xander tried to convince himself to keep breathing.

"Cryo ain't safe for that long an' you know it. 'Sides, you ain't makin' no sense -- nobody can be put on ice 'thout a box."

She giggled and grinned at Xander. "You were right."

"About what?"

She just laughed and shook her head.

"C'mon out of there now, River. I'm glad t'hear you weren't molestin' a passenger in th'night, but there's a reason the gorram doors are closed, and it ain't so you have the fun of opening 'em. Let the man sleep!"

She nodded seriously. "Don't dream of monsters," she recommended, and then passed the captain and swung up the ladder with remarkable grace.

"Sorry 'bout that," the captain said, shrugging apologetically. "She don't mean nothin' by it. She's just a bit on the crazy side."

Xander managed a weak smile. "It's okay. Like she said, she was waking me up from a particularly unpleasant dream, so I'm not in any position to be upset about the manner. I'm just glad you didn't think I was taking advantage of her or something."

He snorted. "Ain't a man alive could take advantage of that girl 'less she wanted advantage taken. Not one-on-one, anyway. Sorry for the trouble -- I'll leave you to your peace."

"Thanks," he muttered, watching as the captain climbed back up the ladder, graceful in a way that spoke of years or practice rather than the deft athleticism River had shown. The dim light vanished with the closing of his door, and he slowly relaxed back into the bed. Finally, he fell back asleep, hoping not to fall prey again to any of the old familiar dreams.


	10. Of Secrets and Dinosaurs

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 022-Space

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.**  
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**Chapter Ten**  
**Of Secrets and Dinosaurs**

Wash looked up curiously at the sound of the bridge door opening and gave a friendly smile as he saw their passenger.

The man offered a diffident smile and waved one hand slightly, not stepping over the threshold. "Is it okay if I come in?"

"Sure." Wash offered an inviting wave of his hand and a grin. "Not that anything real interesting's going on at the moment. Just moving in a straight line, here to there."

Xander smiled and shrugged. "It's all pretty interesting to me. I -- grew up planet-bound. I was never on a ship until a few weeks ago, and it still feels pretty amazing just to be able to look around and see ... that," he explained, nodding towards the viewport and the star-filled void beyond.

"Have a seat," Wash said, pointing out the more comfortable of the two benches at the back of the room. "I can't even imagine never having been in space till I was -- what are you? Twenty-five? Twenty-six?"

"Close," he said. "Twenty-eight, actually."

"How'd that come about? Seems like everyone goes on at least one trip off-planet at some point. 'Specially core-worlders, they always seem to be flitting around from one Alliance planet to another."

"Unusual upbringing," he offered with a shrug and another hesitant smile.

Wash cocked his head slightly to one side, catching wind of a mystery. "Now that's not the first time you've given that as an explanation, and I gotta tell you: each time you say it I get a bit more curious as to what exactly it means." He watched as Xander's eyes grew shuttered, his smile faded, and he turned slightly away, body language shutting Wash out. "Not that I need to know. Mystery's no fun when you've got all the answers."

A hint of a smile answered him. "I don't mean to be mysterious," Xander said.

"No, of course not. Folks who do never succeed half so well," Wash agreed. "Me, I wouldn't mind being a bit mysterious, but, alas, everything there is to me is written on the surface."

Xander laughed, shaking his head. "I really doubt that," he said. "If it was true, I doubt you'd be half the pilot Kaylee says you are, and I _really_ doubt the first mate would find you as interesting as she clearly does."

Wash allowed a contented smile to warm his face, inwardly applauding his success in lessening his guest's tension. "Well, there might be a trick or two up my sleeve," he said. "But mostly you know me right off."

They continued talking about nothing very serious for long while, Wash increasingly intrigued by how little Xander seemed to know about all things space-related, but not letting on about it. He was, on the other hand, delighted to discover that the other man was not only aware of the one-time existence of dinosaurs, but recognized several of the different types he had as toys.

"I used to think the T-Rex was the scariest of them," Xander was saying, examining a plastic figurine of the giant predator, "but then I saw -- then I found out about Velociraptors and the T-Rex was left in the dust. I mean, those things are _scary_."

"If you were starting to say you _saw_ Velociraptors, you and I need to have words, implicit promise of not questioning or no, because if there's dinosaurs out there--"

"No, no, nothing like that," he said with a laugh. "Saw a show about them once, is all."

"Oh yeah? What was it called? Maybe I caught it."

He offered a hint of a smile. "I doubt it. But it was called Jurassic Park."

Wash searched his mind, but finally shook his head. "Don't sound familiar. Did--"

He was interrupted by a call of "Husband," in a beautifully familiar voice.

Face lighting up, he turned to the door. "Wife!"

Zoë came in, smiling, and then paused as she caught sight of Xander. Her posture stiffened back to its usual military precision. "I didn't know you had company, Wash."

"Yup, I do. Xander came up a bit ago, and we've been talking dinosaurs. Sit with me," he added, reaching up to catch his wife's hand and pulling her to him, encouraging her to perch on his knees.

She shot him a reproving look, which Wash returned with an unrepentant grin, and remained standing, eyes returning searchingly to their guest. "I believe you were told the bridge is off limits to passengers without an escort," she stated.

"And what am I?" Wash demanded.

Xander blinked. "Actually, no, I wasn't. But I apologize, I probably should've guessed as much. It makes sense," he said, rising.

Zoë shot her husband a look, but focused her attention back on Xander almost immediately. "The captain didn't tell you the bridge, engine room, and cargo bay are off limits?"

He offered an uncertain shrug. "He didn't. But it's a common enough rule that I should've assumed it was true here, and I apologize for not doing so. I'll get out of your way -- sorry for intruding, Wash, but thanks for the conversation."

"But you weren't intruding!" Wash complained. He turned to his wife as Xander waved again and closed the door as he left. "He wasn't intruding!"

"Well, he didn't know any better," she allowed, finally dropping onto his knees and curling one arm about his shoulders as she leaned back into his chest. "I'm surprised Mal didn't say anything."

"But how come you kicked him out? He wasn't doing anything wrong."

"Passengers aren't allowed on the bridge without an escort."

"I was here. I don't count as an escort? I can escort!"

She grinned at him. "You can escort me back to our room..."

"I can? I can!" he agreed, standing up, still holding her, and dropping a kiss to her lips. "But I still don't see why--"

"I worry about you. And I don't trust him."

"What? Why not?"

"He's hiding something. And he was probably pumping you for information."

"About dinosaurs?" Wash asked doubtfully as he set his wife down on her feet and wrapped his arm around her, heading for the door.

"About Serenity. Our destination, cargo. I don't know. I just don't trust him."

"I love you more than life itself you know," he murmured into her hair.

"I know."

"Then you won't take it the wrong way when I say I think you're mad?"

She laughed at him, drew him to their ladder, and then headed down to wait for him to join her. "It just seems too convenient. Him rescuing Kaylee like that."

"You think he meant to get shot?" he asked doubtfully, climbing down the last step, and turning to wrap his arms around her again. "I love everything about you. Even your paranoia."

Laughing, she shrugged. "All part of the job. At least he won't be on board for long. Now I can think of better things for us to be talking about."

"Can you?" he murmured.

"I can," she assured him.

"Oh," he said thoughtfully. "Good."


	11. An Offer

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 042-Time Travel

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

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**Chapter Eleven**  
**An Offer**

Xander hefted his bag and swung it onto his shoulder, enjoying the painless stretch across his ribs. Simon had done a nice job fixing him up. He took one last glance around his room, checking for anything he might have left behind, but everything was neatly packed. He paused for a moment, looking around, and then shrugged and stepped out into the hallway, the door to his room closing with a leaden finality behind him. Not looking back, he headed for the Cargo Hold.

He would miss this ship, he realized with a hint of surprise. It was the first time in all too long that he'd felt rather comfortable in a place. And, more importantly, with a group of people. He'd only been with them and awake for a week, but it seemed like longer. Stepping out onto the catwalk above the cargo bay, he resettled his bag slightly, and then jogged down the steps to where Jayne was holding one end of a large crate and waiting impatiently for Kaylee to lift the other. The girl was intent on the job, struggling to raise it, but clearly not doing too well.

Xander dropped his bag in an out of the way corner, and stepped forward, tapping her on the shoulder. "Here, let me," he said softly. "You can take some of the small ones out while Jayne and I get this, huh?"

Gratefully, she released her hold and stepped back. "Thanks! I don't know where Zoë and Mal got off to -- they're supposed to be unloading, too. But the buyer's all here with his wagon, and we want him to be able to leave soon's he pays so we can load up the new cargo."

"No problem," Xander said, crouching to lift his end of the crate. "After all, I got this whole free ride out of you guys -- seems like the least I can do."

It was heavy, but doable, and he and Jayne started moving towards the ramp and the wagon waiting outside. The weirdest thing about being in the future, in his opinion, was how damn similar it was to how he imagined being in the past would be. Wagons and cowboy hats and everybody talking in that soft Southern drawl that was more foreign to him than a British accent, thanks to years of Giles and Spike. Why wagons, for crying out loud? They had spaceships! Flying cars! And wagons that looked like they'd fit in beautifully with a group of pioneers on their way out to Tombstone. He didn't get it.

They hefted the crate onto the back of the wagon, and Jayne jumped up to shove it to the front before they went back to get another one.

"Far's passengers we've taken up've gone, you ain't been bad," Jayne commented, picking the next crate to lug out. "Didn't try to kill nobody. Didn't go mad and start attackin' anyone -- 'cept Mal, and can't hardly blame you for that. Didn't wind up havin' the Alliance after you and get us all 'most killed. Didn't poison nobody or try to steal the ship. Didn't pay for passage, neither, but the way luck's gone lately, transportin' you was a ruttin' lot cheaper than most o' th' the payin' customers we've had. 'Ceptin' the Shepherd. He was good folk."

"And Inara," added Kaylee, her voice sad as she set her smaller box next to the ramp, ready to go onto the wagon when the large crates were stowed.

Xander laughed. "Maybe I should try to bill myself that way to the next ship I book a ride on. 'Rather than paying, I promise not to cause you any trouble or cost you any money. Deal?'" Shaking his head, he added, "Somehow I don't think they'll be convinced."

"Maybe they should," Kaylee said with a laugh. "But then maybe other ships don't have quite the same luck as us," she added, smile fading into a look of discontent.

Finally, with the last crate stowed away and the buyer impatiently waiting for Mal to show back up, since he refused to leave his payment with anyone else, Xander returned to the ship one last time to grab his bag again. He turned to head out, and Kaylee threw herself at him, hugging him. He hugged her back, closing his eyes. It felt good having a friend close enough to hug again. Natural. Real.

"You really gotta go?" she asked, finally releasing him.

"Well, I'm don't see a lot of other options," he said teasingly.

"The alternative to leaving is staying," she said, smiling wistfully up at him. "You seemed to get on okay with us. And you won't find a better ship than my girl, not if you search a hundred years. You're gonna keep traveling -- why not with us?"

A loud, "Hyah!" and the sound of crunching gravel marked the wagon leaving suggested Mal had come back and collected payment for his goods, given that Jayne didn't start shooting.

"Not if I searched five hundred," Xander agreed, keeping his tone from sounding too serious by a force of will. "But Kaylee, you've known this whole trip I was leaving at the end. No other way to go."

"Maybe there is," the voice from near the ramp made Xander look up from Kaylee. The captain had returned and was eying Xander thoughtfully. Zoë stood a pace behind him, looking disapproving, but that wasn't terribly unusual when she was looking at Xander.

"Captain?"

"Well, I've been thinkin'. You said you don't got any specific plans on where t'go. And you've been positively restful compared to most of our passengers of late. What's more, we could use a regular income from rent since Inara's gone. We don't got a set schedule, so you'd see most of the worlds with us, sooner'n not. Given you can afford rent, I don't see a reason why you shouldn't as well pay it to us as to anyone else. You can stay on a month b'fore we make a longer commitment, make sure you get on okay with everyone."

Xander hesitated and glanced down at Kaylee's hopeful expression, but then slowly shook his head. "I can't say I'm not tempted, Captain, but I don't think it'll work. I told you I'm looking for a place to set up for a while, and while the dorm here isn't bad, it's not big enough for me to set up a work bench. I don't want to get used to being here and have it hurt that much more to leave later on, and I can't just plan to stay for a good long time if I don't have space to work. I wish I could, but," he trailed off, shaking his head again, a rueful smile touching his lips at Zoë's faintly relieved expression.

"Well, but that ain't the only option," Mal pointed out.

"It's not?" he asked, blankly.

"Well, one o' the dorms ain't the only thing you could rent."

A sharp indrawn breath drew Xander's eyes back down to Kaylee, but her eyes were locked on the captain now, her expression startled, even shocked.

"We've also got the shuttles. We need one for ship's use, but we've rented out the other one long-term before without any ill coming of it. They're a good bit larger than the dorms. It'd cost more, but if you've got the coin, we could work somethin' out."

Feeling hopeful, Xander hesitated, then said, "Well, why don't you show me the space, and I'll see if it's something I can work with."

Mal nodded sharply and headed towards the steps, leading Xander towards the shuttle. Zoë stayed at his side, and Kaylee and Jayne followed along with Xander, neither of them speaking.

Mal opened the door, and waved Xander in. Stepping in, he looked around and his brows rose slightly. Then he sniffed. "Incense, huh?"

"The last tenant was Inara," Mal said.

"She's a Companion," Kaylee added softly. "She was always burning incense. And she kept everything so lovely."

It was a good-sized space, a lot bigger than one of the dorms, and more usable as well. The light was remarkably good, probably inherited from the Companion tenant; it felt almost natural, the most like real sunlight he'd ever seen from an artificial source. It would work, he realized. A slow smile lit his face as he turned back to the captain. "I think it'd work, Captain. I believe I'll take you up on your offer."

"Without even askin' the price?" Zoë asked sharply.

He shrugged and smiled. "What's the price, then?"

Mal named a figure that made Kaylee gasp and glare at him. "Captain!"

Xander just nodded. "First month and security up front? I'd offer last, too, but if we're just doing a trial month... Next month, if we agree I'm to stay, I'll give you another two, and after that a month at a time, if that's acceptable? The security to be returned if all's in good shape when I leave, of course."

The captain smiled back. "That'll do right nice, I think. Don't you think, Zoë?"

"What I think is no carpenter's got enough money to pay three months up front at a rate like that, 'less he's more'n just a carpenter," she snapped, tone brittle.

"What do you say to that, Xander?" the captain asked.

"Of course there's more to me than just a carpenter -- just like there's more to Kaylee than just a mechanic and more to you than just a captain. People have layers."

"Like ogres," River exclaimed happily, popping into the shuttle and skipping over to Xander.

Xander grinned at her and ruffled her hair. "Have I mentioned lately that I love you?" he asked. "Yeah. Ogres have layers."

Everyone else stared at them like they were completely mad -- probably not an unfamiliar sensation for River. Come to think of it, it wasn't that strange a sensation for him either.

"What?" Kaylee asked uncertainly.

"Line from a show I saw one time. It seemed particularly appropriate, and at home someone would've chimed in with it," Xander explained. "I assume River realized I'd appreciate hearing it and tossed it in."

"Time moves in circles," she said seriously, looking up at him. "If you stay long enough, you'll be home again."

Xander felt his face shut down, and forced himself to smile at her. "Could be," he lied.

She shook her head sadly. "Stupid. You'll figure it out eventually."

That brought a more honest smile to his face. "Well, that's definitely one I've heard before -- although with less faith in my getting it eventually. So with this whole shuttle deal, would it mean on planet I could take it away from the ship if I wanted?"

"Absolutely," Mal agreed genially, apparently more than content at the promise of a rather large sum of cash coming in at regular intervals.

"Cool," Xander murmured, setting his bag down and looking around eagerly. "I'll have to get someone to teach me to fly it one of these days. How long are we on planet for? I'd like to pick up a few things, if I'm going to stay."

"Two days. Make sure you're not late."

"Of course." He smiled, feeling happier than he'd been in a long time. "Thank you, Captain."

The captain just shrugged. "Nothin' to thank me for. You'll be paying your way."

"This is a bad idea," Zoë said.

The captain grinned at her. "Now how is this a bad idea?"

"I don't trust him," she said, eyes not leaving Xander, who looked back calmly.

"Zoë," Mal said, a smile teasing the corners of his lips. "Last time you were so dead set against a man, you went and married him. You give me some warning if yer gonna do the same thing again, dong ma?"

She glared at him. "You mockin' my misgivings, sir?"

He raised a brow. "Your misgivings based on anything real?"

"How 'bout the fact that he's not once told us a single thing that makes sense about how he came to be wandering the 'verse? You don't find that worth a touch of distrust?"

River giggled. "Anything that made sense would be a lie," she said. "Nothing in Xander's life has ever made sense."

"Nothing but feelings," he confirmed. "Those, at least, stay pretty constant." He took a step towards Zoë and said, "I don't talk much about my past. I have reasons for that, and I can only ask you to believe me when I say those reasons and that past aren't gonna hurt you or yours. I mean this ship and its crew no harm. I doubt I could harm you even if I did want to, or that I'd survive long if I did -- running a ship is something I couldn't begin to do." He paused for a moment, thoughtfully, then continued, "But I understand what it's like to not trust someone and to have everyone around you sure they know better. If you want me gone, I'll leave. I'd like to stay, but this is your home and I don't stay in peoples' homes where I'm not welcome."

"We made a deal," Mal said shortly.

"We did. And it's your ship -- but it's her ship, too. I'm not here to cause trouble, and if my staying's going to make anyone unhappy, I won't stay. I'm looking for a home -- I've made do enough times in ones where I'm not wanted. Now that I have control over it, I won't do it again."

Zoë stared back at him, measuring him. "You're not going to cause the captain any trouble?"

"I hope not," he stated. "I don't intend to, certainly. All I want to do is settle down, carve some wood, and see a bit of the 'verse."

There was dead silence for several minutes as they stared at each other and the others watched them. Finally, she nodded once, sharply. "We need the income, and that's a fact," she stated, then turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

Kaylee released a breath, and leapt up to give him another hug. "You're staying!" she crowed. Then she turned to glare at Mal. "And you shouldn't ought to charge so much! That's more'n you charged Inara, and her a Companion!"

"Well, if he can afford it without bargaining me down, I don't see where you've got cause for complaint," he replied cheerfully.

Xander nodded agreement. "I appreciate the concern, Kaylee, but I promise you it won't beggar me."

"Wood must pay well," Mal commented, cocking one brow.

"Better than you'd think. But I also have some money from..." he faltered, smile dropping and shrugged. "I lost some people who were pretty well off," he said, voice serious. "They made sure I'd be okay financially, though I'd take begging with them over living like a king without any day." He read understanding in the captain's eyes and shrugged. "Well, let's get these funds transferred then, and I'll see about picking up a few things I'd like to have."


	12. A New Toy

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 026-Money

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Twelve  
A New Toy**

"We should leave."

"Ain't leavin' yet, Zoë," Mal stated, nothing in his tone suggesting that he'd answered her the same half a dozen times already. "Ten minutes yet to th'time I told him we were leavin'. 'Sides, he's paid a goodly sum of money to us, and I'm seein' no good reason why he shouldn't continue payin' that sum on a regular basis."

"He's hiding something, sir," she persisted, straightening a little into a more military posture.

Mal sighed and shook his head. "Never met a man wasn't."

"There's something off about him."

"Zoë, you haven't told me nothin' I ain't seen myself, but I got no sense that whatever's goin' on with him is gonna affect us in any way. And yer askin' me to give up enough money to keep us in fuel even if we don't get a job fer a while. Thought he made a peace with you, anyway, didn't he?"

Zoë didn't blink. "That was two days ago, through which he ain't contacted us in any way, and I'm all in favor of leavin' on the dot of noon like we said we would."

"Not noon yet," he repeated, jaw jutting out slightly. "I'm not makin' any decisions until then."

"Yes, sir," she she agreed, face expressionless.

The two stared at each other, continuing the argument without the words each knew the other would use. Before either broke away or spoke, the hollow ringing of feet on the ramp, and both turned together to see the subject of their discussion rush up, pulling a handle attached by a bar to what appeared to be a floating stack of lumber with a couple of good-sized crates balanced on top. Mal blinked. Zoë didn't.

"Sorry I'm running late!" Xander exclaimed, looking back and forth between them. "The lumberyard completely screwed up my order and I had to get it sorted out. Then this floaty thing -- and don't get me wrong: I love it -- but I find out it only goes at about the speed of a typical walk before getting a bit tippy, and having to reload the damn thing -- which I love," he added, patting the handle reassuringly, "would have slowed me down way more. So I'm really, really sorry!"

Mal chuckled and caught even Zoë fighting back a hint of an amused smile. He stepped forward, eying the wood curiously. "We were just wondering if we'd have to leave without you. How the hell is that floating?"

Xander grinned. "Floating disk! Just like from D&D -- it's the coolest thing. Look," he added, dropping to one knee to point under the stack.

Mal stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out how in guay the words he'd used fit together, then shrugged and dropped to look under the stack of wood. Beneath it, he saw a flat disk about four feet across and six inches thick, the air beneath it moving in waves, now that he looked closely. He reached out to put one cautious hand beneath it, and found it was shoved down with enough force that it came out from under the disk. "How's it work?" he asked.

"No clue," Xander said, still grinning. "I just know that it does stairs as long as the steps are at least eight inches deep, broken ground doesn't screw it up, it can carry up to a ton of weight, and it's the coolest toy ever."

"Toy?" Mal asked, shaking his head in amusement. "How much did this 'toy' run ya? I've never seen one before, and it seems like it'd be a useful sort of thing for a cargo ship."

Zoë cleared her throat. "Sir, it's noon, are we set to go?"

"No rush, is there, Zoë?"

"Wouldn't know, sir."

"Hey, Mal, did Xander -- wow!" Kaylee darted into the room already talking, then cut herself off as her attention was caught by the floating wood. "Is that a Traelian Levitation Disk? I've been wanting to see one of these since I first heard about 'em! One o' the shops let you use it for delivery? Mighty trustin' of 'em," she added, dropping to her knees and looking underneath it.

Before Xander could answer, Mal turned to his mechanic. "You've heard of these, Kaylee? How come we've never heard of 'em? Seems it'd be mighty useful on a cargo ship."

"Well, sure, cap'n," she said absently. "But there's not that many out yet, so only a couple of the really big ships have 'em. Which store let you borrow it?" she asked Xander. "Wouldn'ta thought any of them had one, much less let it out of their sight."

"None, I bought it. I thought it was neat."

The girl's jaw dropped and her attention left the disk in favor of its owner. "You _bought_ it?" she asked, voice squeaking part way through.

"It seemed like a good thing to have," he said apologetically. "And I try not to steal. Should I not have? It's not gonna hurt the ship or anything, is it?"

She just stared at him, eyes wide.

"Kaylee? What's the excitement here?" Mal demanded.

"Three thousand creds," she said. "Best price I've seen ran about three thousand creds -- that's the excitement."

"Three thou-- tsai boo shr! Jien tah-duh guay," Mal exploded.

Zoë didn't speak, but her eyes narrowed and her posture straightened just a hint further as she watched Xander with distrust.

Kaylee finally looked away from Xander to give a hurt look to her captain. "You sayin' I don't know how prices on equipment run these days, cap'n? If you don't trust me to find fair prices, maybe you'd best--"

"That's not what I'm sayin', Kaylee. You meant platinum, right? Not creds?"

"Creds," she repeated. "It's new tech-- no heat, no chance of explosion, completely internal power source so there's no need for fuel cells or nothin'. They're guaranteein' 'em for up to two hundred fifty years, cap'n, they're incredible. And they're too new for the cost to've come down."

Mal spun on Xander. "And you picked this up as a new toy?"

He shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry if it's a problem. I didn't need it or anything, but I thought it was neat and figured you guys could maybe get some use out of it when I didn't need it."

"So you just shelled out three thousand creds for it?"

"Thirty-five hundred," he admitted sheepishly. "Guess I should've looked around to see if it was a fair price first."

"For a _toy_?" he shouted.

"What's a toy?" Jayne asked, coming into the cargo hold. "And what's takin' so gorram long gettin' off the ground?"

"His new hover disk thing, which cost 'bout three times as much as our new gorram mule, is a toy, according to him."

Xander shrugged. "Well, not like a plastic dinosaur toy. But like a -- well-- like a wicked cool new--" he broke off, shook his head, and shrugged.

"'Wicked cool'?" Jayne repeated blankly.

The younger man sighed. "Totally incapable of describing it," he stated. "I just think it's neat."

"And you can spend that kinda money on anything you think's shiny?"

"I don't think that much is ... shiny," he offered, the hesitation before the last word barely noticeable.

Mal glanced around and caught Zoë's crossed arms and told-ya-so expression, and glared at her for an instant before turning back to their new tenant. "But anything you do, you just go an' pick up?"

"Does it matter?" Xander asked, smile fading a bit. "I won't buy anything that won't fit in my shuttle."

"But you can afford more'r less whatever the guay you want?"

"Why? Are you planning on raising my rent?"

"If I did could you pay it?"

"Whether I could or not, I wouldn't," he replied, last hint of his smile vanishing and leaving his expression more serious than Mal had ever seen it before. It made him see just a hint of how this kid could maybe be dangerous.

"And why's that?"

"Because when I make a deal, I expect it to be kept," he replied, voice icy.

Mal nodded sharply. "Good. How long'll it take you to get that pile o' wood to your shuttle? I wanna be off this moon in five. If it can't be settled there by then, you'd best leave it here and get it when we're out of atmosphere."

"Then that'll be best," Xander replied, the hardness in his eyes vanishing as his usual friendly smile took over his face again. "It doesn't move fast, and I'm not sure it'll be able to get up to the shuttle, wide as it is. I'll probably have to take the wood up separately." He touched a button on the handle, and the whole thing settled lightly to the ground. "Should I tie it down or anything?"

Zoë glared at him. "You suggestin' Wash's gonna shake us up when we take off?"

Xander blinked. "Woah, way to interpret the words. I've taken off with you once, and was unconscious at the time. I've taken off on other ships maybe half a dozen times, and each of them there's been a pretty good chance that a stack of wood wouldn't stay stacked without being tied down. And I'd really rather the wood not get damaged after the work it took to convince the seller that the coarse-grained--" he saw them all staring blankly at them and shrugged. "Right, you could care less about the wood. The point is, I really don't want it tipping, and I've never taken off with you while I'm conscious, which is why I was asking. I didn't mean to give offense."

"You won't need to tie it down," Mal stated. "Once we're outta atmo, you take it up to your shuttle. And next time, I'd be right grateful if you could find your way onto the ship in time to stow your gorram purchases."

Expression serious again, Xander nodded. "Sorry, Captain. I will."

Kaylee glared at Mal. "Like you've never wandered in half an hour after we was scheduled to leave?" She withered under the rare glare he threw at her. "Never mind-- I'm goin' to th' engine rooms."

"Everyone get settled. I want to be in the air," Mal stated, pushing the button to close the cargo bay doors and turning to stalk away, Zoë at his heels.

Xander blinked. "That was weird."

"Cap'n don't much trust rich men," Jayne said cheerfully, turning to head for his quarters. "Come t'think of it, don't know much of anyone does," he added before disappearing through the hatch.

Xander sighed and glanced again at the stack of wood on its disk. "Huh," he muttered, channeling an old friend.


	13. Quiet

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 071-River

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**  
**Quiet**

Xander sat at the bench, carefully smoothing a rough spot on the table leg he was working on. The curve wasn't completely symmetric, and there were a few points where he could still feel the angles of individual cuts, although they were nearly invisible to the eye. By the time he was finished with it, it would be perfectly clean, perfectly smooth, if all went well. He quickly lost himself in the grain of the wood, the curve of the lines, enjoying how it slowly came together. Finally, he sat up, twisting his head to release the kinks in his neck, and was startled to realize just how stiff he was. He'd been working here longer than he realized. Looking over towards his clock, he noticed that River was sitting quietly on the floor, eyes locked on him, a hint of a smile on her lips. He hadn't seen her come in, but he wasn't surprised. She had a standing invitation and enjoyed watching him work for some reason.

"Hey," he said softly, rising to his feet and brushing curls of wood from his lap. A quick glance showed nothing bad enough that he'd have to change before eating. Serenity didn't exactly require evening wear.

She shook her head, looking up and smiled back. "All done?"

"For today, yeah. I'll probably do some more tomorrow. I'd like to get this done before our next landfall."

"Don't want the captain replacing the table before you can?" she asked with a smile.

"That's about it," he agreed, a bit surprised at how clearly she was speaking. Usually she couldn't get across anything quite that long that made sense to anyone but herself. At least not without a lot of interpretation. He left the curtained off side of the shuttle that housed his workshop and moved into the small bathroom, not closing the door so he could continue chatting with River while he washed off his hands and face.

"He wouldn't anyway. Replacing things that don't stop us from flying isn't a good use of money, he says."

"Yeah? Well, I'd still rather get it done. Wanna see if the others are eating? I worked later than I meant to."

She nodded, skipping ahead of him as he left the shuttle and headed for the dining room.

Simon met them part way, his worried expression clearing as he caught sight of River. "There you are! I was beginning to worry!"

She laughed at him, and passed by without stopping.

Xander smiled apologetically. "Sorry about that. She was watching me work and I lost track of time. I guess she did too."

"It's okay," Simon said slowly, eyes measuring the other man. "It was just enough time that I was starting to be a bit concerned."

"Yeah, I get that," Xander agreed. "Little sisters are one of those things you worry about and protect." He paused a moment, then said seriously, "She's in no danger from me."

Simon nodded, but his frown didn't clear. "I've seen no sign that she would be."

"And I have no proof that she isn't. I know. I'm starving," he added, serious tone vanishing as he opened the door went into the dining room to find everyone else already well into their meals. Even Wash was already eating, and he was almost always late.

"Sorry we're late," he apologized for River and himself both. "Lost track of time while I worked."

"How come she's always watchin' you?" Jayne asked. "She's never been so intent on watchin' nothin' before."

Xander shrugged. "Guess you'd have to ask her, not me."

"Yeah, cuz I just love getting gorram mixed up answers that don't make no sense," Jayne muttered.

"It's quiet when Xander works."

Everyone turned to stare at the girl none of them had expected to chip in. "What's that?" Simon asked.

"It's quiet. Soothing. He stops thinking. Stops so hard that it's like nobody else is thinking either, and it's just -- quiet."

"If it's someone not thinkin' she likes, you'd think she'd be following Jayne around like a puppy," Wash said with a chuckle.

"Want me to make you stop thinkin'?" the merc asked threateningly.

"River," Simon said softly. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged, shaking her head. "That's as clear as I can say it. He makes everything quiet."

Xander shrugged when the doctor turned to him. "I lose myself in the work," he offered. "You mean when it's just me and the wood, right River?" he asked her.

She nodded, not looking up or pausing in her eating.

"Whatever," Jayne finally muttered. "When are we hitting Harvest, Mal? I need somethin' with a bit of flavor to eat."

"Three more days, if we're still on schedule," the captain said. "We still on schedule, Wash?"

"Sure are," he agreed cheerfully. "Might even get in a bit ahead if all goes well."

"Three days," Jayne muttered in irritation. "They gorram well better have steak."

"'Course they will," Kaylee said cheerfully. "We've only been to Harvest a dozen times afore, you know they'll treat us right."

Jayne snorted. "Yeah, that's what you said 'bout Whitefall an' Patience."

Kaylee winced. "I never said nothin' bout her."

"Only the captain said anything 'bout all goin' well with Patience," Zoë added. "So she shot him once -- no reason to think she'd do it again, right, sir?" she asked ironically.

"We came out with our money in hand and no damage done," Mal stated. "Don't see where you got cause to complain."

"Just don't take too well to these promises of us all gettin' along with border worlders when things always seem t'happen to turn folks against us when we ain't there."

"Not always," Kaylee said. "Not even usually! Usually we get on right well with everyone."

"Sometimes you even come out a hero," Wash added with a grin.

Jayne shot him a bitter glare. "We ain't talkin' bout that."

"We could..."

"'Less you're wantin' a big, smokin' hole where yer chest useta be, we're not talkin' bout that!"

"'Less you want a big, drippin' wound where your balls useta be, you're not threatening my husband," Zoë replied calmly.

"Can we stop threatenin' each other at the table?" Kaylee pleaded. "Just fer while we eat? Please?"

"Aw, c'mon Kaylee," Xander said with a grin. "You're taking away their best entertainment."

"How's your bullet-hole?" Jayne asked, turning on him. "You ready to show me what you got?"

Xander turned to Simon, brows raised. "What say you, doc? Am I good to go?"

"It's pretty well healed. There've been no problems since I took out the stitches?"

"Problems?" he asked innocently. "What problems could there possibly be?"

Simon sighed. "Okay. If it's not giving you any trouble, it should be okay. But one twinge, and I want you to let me know!"

Xander smiled. "Oh yeah! Out of medical leave! I don't promise to give you much of a fight, but I'd be glad to spar a bit."

Jayne stared at him for a long moment, then shook his head. "It's when you say go se like that I remember you're from the Core," he muttered.

Wash snickered, and even Zoë smiled.


	14. A Brief Game

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 062-Game

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Fourteen**  
**A Brief Game**

Xander took his time eating despite Jayne's good-natured prompts to hurry up, but finally he rose with a laugh. "I don't know what you're so excited about -- I'm sure you can knock any of these other guys around the cargo hold just as well as you can me."

"Yeah, well, they don't play much no more," Jayne complained.

Mal snickered. "Enjoy yourself, kid. Jayne here tends to take dirty fightin' to a whole new level."

"I don't want either of you hurting each other enough that you wind up back in the infirmary," Simon added.

"Nah, we'll just be playin'," Jayne insisted. "Just didn't get ta see much of his fight back on Persephone, but what I got made me curious."

The others followed the pair down to the cargo hold, to a large empty area, and gathered slightly to one side, out of the way. "You hurt anything down here and you'll find me a mite displeased," Mal added.

"Sure, we'll stay in the clear area, right, Xander?"

"Whatever you say," he agreed, glancing around with a practiced eye.

Jayne grinned like a kid in the candy store as he rolled his shoulders and moved forward to the center of the cleared out area, waiting for Xander to join him. "Anyone falls unconscious or calls 'done', we stop. Beyond that, no rules."

"Sure," Xander said again, stepping forward to face him. He stopped a cautious few feet back, and waited, balance spread evenly between his feet and forward just slightly, carefully relaxed, eyes locked on his opponent.

"Right then. You both ready?" Mal asked.

"Any time."

"A'course."

"Now," Mal called.

Neither moved, both waiting, watching each other, and Kaylee let out a nervous giggle. "Usually someone does somethin' about then," she commented.

A hint of a smile played over Xander's lips, but he didn't speak, just edged right as Jayne edged left. Jayne suddenly charged, and Xander leapt to one side, rolling and coming back up. His smile widened fractionally as he saw the bigger man turn quickly to face him again, a broad grin on his face. Like he'd thought, Jayne was big, but he wasn't slow. And he was clearly in his element during a fight.

"Not entirely without practice," Jayne commented. "I gotta say again, you musta had some real interestin' bullies at yer school if that's what ya learned."

Xander laughed, spinning out of the way of a punch. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he promised, ducking under another blow to rabbit-punch his opponent, who turned, deflecting the blow to his side rather than his stomach and kicked out, catching Xander's hip and sending him flying back.

Attention completely locked on his opponent and the terrain, Xander realized in the air that he was going to hit something. He twisted to dodge it, back on his feet again before he'd realized that it had been Kaylee rather than a wall or a crate. He moved back in. It had taken him a long time to break his habit of rushing in, and he had finally learned not from yet another concussion that could be directly blamed on an impulsive attack, but from training baby Slayers. The only way he could convince them not to risk themselves with stupid attacks was by not using them himself, and it had the interesting result of a lot lower hospital visit to fight ratio.

A fist to his jaw knocked his head back, and he lashed out instinctively while internally reprimanding himself for letting his attention wander during a fight. He focused on Jayne once more. He only vaguely heard the shouts of mockery and advice addressed to both of them by those watching, mostly Mal and Wash, with an occasional concerned shout from Kaylee. He didn't spare any attention for interpreting either them or the expressions he occasionally caught on faces in his peripheral vision.

He saw Jayne punching out again, and dropped, sweeping out the other man's feet and aiming a kick to his ribs as he landed. He only got one in before Jayne had rolled away and was up again, a grin of pure enjoyment on his face as he ducked under Xander's punch and came up with a fist to his solar plexus that made his vision blank out for an instant. And suddenly he wasn't fighting Jayne, he was fighting a vampire, a demon, and he came in with a fierce flurry of blows that drove his opponent back, ignoring the ones that landed on him in return, and reached for his knife.

An intense whisper of, "No! Bad!" caught his attention as none of the shouted advice had, and River's voice reminded him of where he was.

"Done!" he called, stopping himself with a gasp and jumping back.

"Jien tah-duh guay! How come?" Jayne demanded.

"'Cuz he stopped fightin' you," Mal said, eyes locked on Xander.

"Yeah, I _know_ he gorram well stopped fightin' me, and I stopped like I said I would. But I wanna know why! You weren't outta the game yet," he complained, turning back to Xander. "Not by a long shot! We was havin' fun!"

"Not what the captain was sayin'," Zoë said, her eyes, too, locked on Xander as he very slowly relaxed and managed to move his hand away from the knife in his belt. "He stopped fightin' you before he called out. I was near ready to involve myself."

Xander offered his opponent an apologetic shrug. "Sorry," he said. "I just -- for a second there it wasn't you. And it was about to stop being a game and start being life or death if I didn't stop."

Jayne stared at him. Finally, he shook his head. "Some bullies," he muttered, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm. Then he grinned. "Well, that was too short, but you ain't half bad. 'Specially at the end, there, you got some definite moves on ya." He held out his hand.

Xander laughed, stepping forward to shake it. "Good fight -- even if you were humoring me in the beginning."

"Naw, I just wanned to wait fer you to get yer act together," Jayne said. "Figured you ain't had a fight in a while, best let ya warm up b'fore knockin' ya down too hard."

"So who _were_ you fighting, there at the end?" Mal asked, his eyes still locked on Xander.

He turned to face the captain, studying him for a long moment. "Does it matter?"

"Call me curious."

"It wasn't actually anyone specific," he answered after a moment. "It wasn't a flashback to a particular fight or anything, if that's what you mean."

He noticed the captain and first mate exchange a quick look, but couldn't read whatever passed between them before Mal turned back to him and stepped forward to clap him on the shoulder. "Well, like Jayne said, you ain't half bad. Wouldn't mind havin' ya at my back in a bar fight, if'n I was in the habit of gettin' into any such thing. Which, of course, I ain't."

Zoë snorted. "Course not, sir."

"Course not," he repeated, grinning at her, and then turned to Wash. "You're down here. I'm down here. Who in guay's flyin' the boat?"

Wash laughed. "Dunno, Mal -- bet we're all gonna die. We were all set on course before dinner. Wouldn't hurt to check up on her again, though. I'll--"

"I'll get it," Mal said. "Zoë was sayin' somethin' 'bout demanding your presence after dinner tonight."

"Well, that's the kind of demand I'm always open to," Wash said, turning to his wife with a wide grin, which she returned with a smile that warmed her face and lit her eyes, for all that it hardly turned up her lips. "I'll be around to check my other lady sometime over the night," he added, wrapping an arm about Zoë's shoulder and heading for the door.

Jayne pounded Xander on the back. "Nice fight," he said.

"You too. Sorry for dropping out so early, but I was about to do something I would have regretted."

The bigger man nodded agreement. "Yeah. You woulda definitely regretted pullin' that knife. Was surprised to see ya lookin' to. You don't seem the type pulls a blade in a friendly game."

"I'm not," he agreed, a shadow crossing his eyes for an instant. "Sorry about that, too."

"Nothin' to be sorry for. You didn't do it. And if you had, well now, that woulda been real interestin'," Jayne pointed out, voice suggesting he wouldn't have been averse to trying it.

Xander grinned at him, cautiously feeling the area the last blow, the one that had made him see stars, had caught him.

"You okay?" Kaylee asked, coming up beside him to look back and forth, making it clear that her concern was for both of them.

"Sure, that there was hardly a warm up," Jayne said cheerfully. "Next time maybe we'll have more of a go."

"I'll be a little stiff tomorrow, but no harm done," Xander promised, smiling at the girl, who had turned anxiously to him after Jayne's answer. He noticed Simon stiffen, and deliberately turned away a bit, amused but not wanting to step on any toes. "Think I'm gonna try to get a bit more done tonight. Seeya tomorrow, guys."

Jayne thumped him on the shoulder again, and Xander left with another amused glance at the doctor and a general wave.


	15. Common Knowledge

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 062-Game

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**  
**Common Knowledge**

The soft knock made Xander look up, set aside his current work, and move out past the curtain into his main room. "It's open," he called, long habit keeping him from offering an explicit invitation even on a ship where he knew each person on it and knew for a fact that none of them were undead.

The door opened, and Kaylee stepped in, smiling. "Hey, Xander. I didn't have much to do and was wonderin' if I could take a look at your disk," she said hopefully.

"As long as you don't take it apart so much that you can't put it together again, knock yourself out," he said with a laugh, moving over to his bed and sliding the disk out from under it.

She started forward, then paused, startled. "Knock myself out?"

"Sorry. Turn of phrase back home -- help yourself."

Kaylee's attention was caught again, this time by the room itself as she looked around. An interesting series of expressions crossed her face, and he watched her curiously, waiting. "It's so different," she finally offered. "Really different from how Inara had it."

Xander hesitated, and then nodded. "I never saw it how she had it, of course. But I'm sure it was beautiful. I've never had much taste."

The girl blushed, and shook her head. "I didn't mean nothin' like that! I like it like this, it's just really different. Quieter. More homey. It was magnificent when 'Nara lived here though," she finished a bit sadly.

"You miss her."

"Yeah, I do. Not that I'm sorry to have you!" she added hurriedly, looking anxiously up at him. "Just, I hate people leavin'. Everyone I love, I like to stay right close."

He sighed, dropping down to the floor beside the bed and patting the spot next to him in invitation for her to join her. "I know what you mean."

"How could you bear it? Goin' off alone without anyone you loved?" she asked, dropping down next to him and resting her chin on one knee, leaning sideways against the bed so she could look at his profile.

Pain flashed through his face, and he shook his head. "I didn't have much choice," he said. "Besides, you must've done the same. You didn't know the crew before you joined on Serenity, did you?"

"No," she admitted. "But -- well, I fell in love with Serenity the moment I set foot in her, so I was never _really_ alone. And the crew became family right quick."

"I bet they did," he agreed, a smile passing over his lips. "I'm sorry you miss her. And I'm sorry that the shuttle brings it home. It's just starting to feel like my home, and I wouldn't have wanted it to make you feel lonely."

"Oh, no, it ain't that! Not really, anyway. I just -- I just miss her," she repeated helplessly, rising restlessly to her feet to look around. "You don't got much in here yet."

"No, almost everything's in the part I set aside as my shop," he agreed. "And even there, it's just tools and stuff. Nothing very interesting to see."

She nodded, not pressing him to open it up since he didn't offer, and looked around, finally stopping before the single decoration on the wall, a large framed depiction of two Chinese characters. It was beautiful, Xander thought. When he moved in, he'd found it upside down and forgotten in a corner and had put it up. He sometimes stared at it in fascination, loving the way the brushmarks were so clean, the way the ink spread ever-so-slightly into the grain of the paper, void-black on off-white.

"This is beautiful," she murmured, staring at it, a faint wrinkle between her brows. "It looks familiar."

"I found it when I moved in," he explained. "I probably should have asked someone if it was okay for me to put it up, but..."

She nodded. "I'm sure Inara wouldn't mind. She could always write another one, after all," she said with a laugh. "Anyway, she'd never put it up herself-- she never put up her own stuff."

Xander rose to stand behind her, looking at it anew. "You mean she made this? Wrote it, or whatever?"

"Yeah. Beautiful, isn't it? I don't like all calligraphy -- most often, seems like it's called good any time it's impossible to read, and I don't get that. I like things clear, and Inara's 's clearer'n anyone's."

"Yeah," he agreed. "It's stunning." They admired it for a long moment before he asked, "What does it say?"

She turned away from the scroll as though jerked by a string, staring at him. "Huh? Can't you read it?"

He shook his head, coloring faintly.

"How come?" she asked blankly. "It's clear as anythin'."

"Because about all the Chinese I've picked up so far is 'dong ma' and 'guay'," he admitted with a laugh. "And I wouldn't have a clue how to recognize even those if I saw them."

"How's that? How'd you get through school 'thout knowing Chinese?" she asked in honest confusion. "I never knew nobody didn't know it."

Xander shrugged uncomfortably. "Unusual upbringing," he said, using his cover-all explanation. Then he added, "My father always said English was good enough for him and good enough for his father, and it damn well ought to be good enough for me, too," he added, remembering the words from when the man had been furious when he'd gotten a call from Xander's French teacher. His anger had stemmed not from the fact that his son was failing the class, but that he was taking it in the first place.

Kaylee continued to just stare at him, but finally shook her head. "I just don't get how that could even happen," she said blankly. "I mean -- well -- not that there's nothin' wrong with it!" She paused, looking up at him, expression horrified at her lack of tact. "I mean, you know lots of stuff other folks don't -- I don't know nobody else who works wood beyond just buildin' a log cabin or doin' a bit of whittling. Nothin' wrong with not knowing Chinese."

He laughed, offering her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'm not offended. But at the same time, I'm beginning to think I'd best figure it out -- since I started wandering the 'verse, I've discovered more and more that it seems to be a pretty necessary skill."

She hesitated, and then offered, "I could ... I could teach ya. If you want, I mean. I probably wouldn't be any good, but -- well, if you want, I could try."

Surprised, he looked down at her hopeful expression and suddenly felt tears prickling his eyes -- she looked so much like Willow for one split second, even though she looked absolutely nothing like his old friend. "I'd like that," he admitted, blinking to clear his eyes. "If it doesn't take you away from anything important."

"Nah, it'll be okay," she said. "If I'm busy or somethin', I'll just tell you."

He nodded. "Works for me. And I'm almost never busy except when I'm working wood, and that I can do that just as easily any time, since it's not like I have any time commitments other than dinner. Hell, I don't even have to worry about daylight, since there isn't any."

She smiled sunnily, bouncing a bit as she turned back towards the scroll. "This is gonna be fun!" she exclaimed. "I'll start by lookin' up some kids books on the Cortex and downloadin' 'em. They're simpler." She started to turn towards the door, eager to begin, and Xander caught her arm, laughing.

"We don't have to start right away. You were going to examine my disk."

"Oh! Right! But that can wait, really, I was just curious."

He nodded. "But I'm not in any real hurry. Whichever you want is fine. But maybe we could start with you just telling me what this one means?" he added hopefully. "I've wondered for a while."

Kaylee blushed and laughed. "I forgot!" she said. "That's how we started talkin' 'bout it in the first place! This one says 'jia wen'," she said, voice softening slightly on the word. "'Home'."


	16. Laughter and Tears

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 025-Jealousy

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Sixteen**  
**Laughter and Tears**

Mal leaned back in his comfortable chair and hitched one foot up onto the table in front of him, turning slightly away from Zoë so he could get a clearer view of the drama beyond. At a table about halfway across the room and just to one side, Simon was working on a paper screen, researching. Or at least pretending to. Maybe even trying to. At the far end of the room, and to the Mal's other side, Xander and Kaylee were ensconced on a couch, obviously comfortable with each other. Kaylee was leaning slightly on Xander, and his arm was about her shoulders. They were talking animatedly, although quietly enough that Mal couldn't make out what they were saying, Kaylee often pushed herself up to turn and look at her friend before leaning back into his half-embrace. Most of Simon's attention was clearly focused on them, and most of Mal's attention, and Zoë's, for that matter, was on garnering every bit of amusement he could from the situation.

Kaylee threw back her head, laughing delightedly at something, Xander grinning with her and still talking. Simon looked up from his work to send another glare over, and Mal silenced a snicker at his doctor's expression.

"Fourteen," Zoë murmured, her lips twitching slightly.

He nodded agreement. "Yep."

"Think he'll go over?"

"Nope."

The doctor dropped his eyes back down to his work, glaring at it. Mal noticed he didn't put his stylus to much use and figured that if any work was getting done on the ship, it wasn't being done by the doc. Kaylee finally stopped laughing enough to start talking again, just loud enough that Mal could catch the enthusiastic rise and fall of her voice but couldn't quite make out the words. The worst possible volume: too loud to not notice but too quiet to actually make out. He'd consider moving closer, but this was the only spot he'd have a clear view of all three of their faces. Besides, given how much nonsense the boy talked, listening in probably would take all the fun out of it. And having Zoë able to listen in would definitely take out the fun because she'd just start going on about not trusting him again. This way, not able to hear them, she was able to just lean back and enjoy Simon's misery.

Xander started nodding as she spoke with increasing energy, and finally interrupted, speaking quickly, and Simon sent them another glare.

"Fifteen," Mal commented.

"Not gonna do anything 'bout it yet, though," Zoë said.

"If he ever does," Mal agreed, as the doctor once again returned to his screen, jaw clenched, by the looks of it.

Both of the two on the couch started laughing a minute later, and each time one started to calm down, they met each others' eyes and relapsed. It lasted long enough that Mal felt a smile building on his own face from the sheer contagion of it. He rested his elbow on his leg and his hand on his chin to hide it in case the good doctor looked over. That one was good for two glares before it ended and they both managed to compose themselves and returned to just talking.

Zoë took a sip of her drink, eyes off Simon to study Xander, trying to figure him out. Zoë liked things to fit into neat little compartments; things, and people, too. Mal knew her better than any other living being. The way she carefully put everything away, always in the exact condition she'd want it again for next use, exactly where she'd look to find it-- that hadn't come from her time as a soldier; it was older than that. That same feeling, she liked it in people, too. That was why she stayed with him, Mal figured. He wasn't perfect, and she knew that as well as anyone, maybe better, but she knew each one of his flaws inside and out, knew how he'd respond, what he'd do. That was the kind of behavior that she trusted. Xander on the other hand, he was a mystery. Every time Mal thought he had him figured out, he did something unexpected. No telling what he'd do, what he was thinking. Half of what he said seemed like it was hiding something, though Mal didn't often catch him in an honest-to-god lie. He didn't mostly call him on it when he did, of course. That was never a good way of finding anything out.

"Eighteen." Zoë's voice broke him from his thoughts.

His eyes flashed to the doctor, who was just turning back to his paper. "Glad you were on him-- I missed it."

"It was a quick one," she said.

Mal nodded and then twisted his head to the side, cracking his neck. He turned his gaze back to Simon, but his thoughts stayed on their new passenger. Always seemed like there was something hiding out in him just waiting to get out. The only purely honest moments he'd seen, that he was sure of, were when the boy had attacked him on waking, and that instant with Jayne when suddenly he wasn't fighting Jayne any more. It was hard to trust a man who was only honest when he was shit-scared.

"Wouldn't bother me so much if it'd been a flashback to a particular fight," Zoë said, the words fitting into his thoughts as if she were reading his mind. Only it wasn't creepy when she did it -- she just knew him so damn well she could follow the same patterns, not like River who actually did her reading.

"Yep."

"If it was just a flashback, it'd be one time," she persisted.

"Been thinkin' that myself."

"The fight he had where he lost his eye, that'd likely be bad enough to return to now'n then."

Mal nodded, a smile flicking over his lips as he added, "Nineteen," the word echoing a bit as Zoë said it in the same instant.

"Thing is, if it's _not_ one fight, means he was in enough that one don't stand out much above the rest. Not even that one," she said.

"Yer tellin' me nothin' I don't know, Zoë."

"Sorry if I'm boring you, sir," she said stiffly.

He glanced over at her, offering her a brief smile before returning his gaze to the entertainment. "You ain't never bored me, Zoë, and you know it. And I'm not saying I don't agree with you. It's more'n a mite disturbing that he ain't fought in the war but has spent enough of his life fighting to be flashing back to nothin' in particular."

"You believe he didn't fight in the war?"

"If he was lyin' when he said it, he's a damn sight better liar than I've ever met," Mal aid simply.

"I thought the same," she admitted. "I've known worlds with crime, but if he grew up in a slum fightin' with a gang -- or without one either--" she shook her head. "It don't feel right. _He_ don't feel right."

Mal nodded. "True 'nuff. But the thing of it is, he fits in okay anyway. Kaylee's having a ball just having someone she can talk to who don't put her down by mistake and is never too busy. River worships him. Hell, even Jayne likes him."

"How 'bout you, sir?"

Mal snorted, then grinned as the doctor looked up to glare at the pair on the couch. "Twenty. I don't like nobody, Zoë, you know that."

She actually laughed at that one, a slow, soft chuckle that he didn't get to hear much, especially when her husband wasn't with her. "You just keep tellin' yourself that, sir. But--"

"Hold on, here's a whole new development to our little drama," Mal said, waving her to silence as he noticed River appear at the top of the stairs.

The girl glanced around, and then she ghosted down the stairs, bare feet hardly seeming to touch the steps as she moved into the common room. A smile curved her lips, and she moved unhesitatingly to the pair on the couch, sitting on the broad arm of it, next to Xander. He welcomed her with a grin, wrapping his free arm about her as she slid down the side of the arm a bit so she was half sitting on his lap.

"Twenty-one-- nope, he's had it," Zoë said.

Simon had started with a glare, but as his sister slid into the other man's hold, leapt to his feet with enough force that his chair clattered to the floor behind him. "River!" he said, just short of loud enough to call a shout.

She turned to glare back at him, not answering.

"Come here. Right now."

Her lower lip jutted in an expression that would have seemed childish and petulant on the face of any other girl in her mid-teens, but on her it just looked like River. "Don't be a baby," she snapped and then turned, whispered something in Xander's ear, got up, and flounced away through the door to the cargo hold, not giving her brother a second look. He chased after her, talking with ever increasing volume as the door closed, and they just caught the tail-end of his harangue from the hall because he was shouting. "--like a common floozy!"

Mal felt his face stiffen with fury as he saw the hurt look enter Kaylee's eyes as she stared at the door. Xander said something to her, and she shook her head angrily. He touched her cheek, drawing his thumb under her eye, probably wiping away a tear, and her expression softened a bit, but then she said something quickly, got up, and walked quickly upstairs, probably heading for the engine room. Mal just caught a glimpse of the tears on her face as she left. He rose purposefully to his feet with a curt nod of farewell to his first mate and headed towards the cargo bay. Xander caught his eye as he went past, an unusually serious, questioning expression on his face, which relaxed slightly into angry approval at whatever he read in Mal's face as he left the room to go bawl out his doctor.


	17. Aftershocks

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 076-Deceit

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Seventeen**  
**Aftershocks**

Between Kaylee's hurt feelings, the doctor's sullen air of injured dignity at having been yelled at by the captain, and River's righteous indignation, dinner was a less than comfortable meal. Zoë, Jayne, and Mal held up most of the weight of conversation, discussing the details of the job they were doing when they hit Harvest, with Wash occasionally chipping in. Xander mostly stayed out of it. He thought Simon was being an idiot, but he'd seen enough idiots in his life to not worry too much about it. And been an idiot enough of the time, for that matter. Having spent most of his life surrounded by girls of exactly the worst age, romantically, he was used to the drama. What he wasn't used to was people not knowing him well enough to leave him out of it. He wasn't convinced that Simon deserved Kaylee, but she clearly wanted him, and so he hoped the doctor would get a clue before too long.

"So you're just goin' into town, pickin' up the goods, and comin' on back?" Wash asked. "Sounds simple enough, what's the fuss?"

"Taylor," Zoë said grimly. "We're doin' no business with him, and we hope he hasn't heard we're comin'. But if he has, there could be trouble. He more'r less owns the town, and we've had dealings with him before."

"Bad dealings," Wash stated, groaning. "I remember him now. Why're we going to River's Bend again? Why not anywhere else on Harvest?"

"'Cause River's Bend is where the gorram merchandise is," Mal said. "We'll go to Three Firs first, rest up, fuel up, enjoy the benefits of bein' on land, then head over to River's Bend for the job."

Wash sighed. "So you're getting in and getting out."

"Yep, shouldn't take more'n an hour."

"Shouldn't," Jayne repeated with a mocking snort. "Cuz things are known for always not goin' the way they shouldn't around us."

"We'll land Serenity a couple miles out," Mal said, ignoring the statement. "The best spot to land is northeast of town. We'll be northwest. It's not a great spot -- we'll damage a few fields, which I'd as soon not do, but if he hears we're coming, he'll look for us in the other direction."

"'Less he has more than half a brain," Wash pointed out. "In which case he'll guess you know that and look for you in the second best spot."

Mal nodded agreement. "And that's why I chose the one that's tied with maybe six others for about fourth best. It should be safe enough."

"Should," Jayne said, with a louder snort. "Cuz things are known for always goin'--"

"BEE-jway!" Mal snapped.

"Shut up," Kaylee said softly from beside Xander.

Mal's eyes turned to her, more than a little startled. "Kaylee, did you just tell me to shut up?" he demanded, more surprised than angry.

Her jaw dropped and a slow color worked its way up into her face. "No, cap'n! I wouldn't do that! I was just tellin' Xander what you said!"

"And why in TYEN shiao-duh would you go repeatin' me?"

"Name of all that's holy," she whispered.

"Cut it out!"

"But I'm teachin' him Chinese!"

There was dead silence as everyone turned to stare at her, except River who kept eating, and Xander who was looking around with amusement.

"He don't know Chinese?" Jayne turned from Kaylee to Xander. "You don't know Chinese?"

"Nope," he admitted. "I'm just starting."

"An' how in guay did you manage to grow up not knowin' Chinese?" he demanded, sounding almost offended at the idea.

"Unusual upbringing," Xander said, eyes flickering to Mal in amusement as the captain said the words in perfect sync with him, a mocking lilt to them. He shrugged as Wash and Kaylee both laughed.

"Seems to me we've heard that a time or two," the captain stated.

"Well it answers a lot of things," he pointed out. "A lot of things really are to blame on it."

Simon shook his head, drawn out of his sulking silence by the mystery. "I don't understand. How could you have gotten through school without ever learning Chinese? That's -- it's just impossible!"

"My father disapproved of foreign languages," he said lightly, saying nothing that wasn't completely true. "Meaning anything but English. He made sure he lived in a place with people who just spoke English, and that's who I grew up with."

They continued to stare at him. Finally Simon shook his head. "I guess if any planet has such a place, it would be Londinum," he admitted. "I've never heard of anything like that before, though."

"You not knowin' somethin'? Is it possible?" Kaylee snapped, not looking up from her food.

Simon stared at her. "I never--"

"I think you'd best not talk just now, doc," Mal said, a hint of steel behind his friendly tone. "Think you've said enough for a day."

Wash looked back and forth between the three before finally turning to his wife. "Did I miss something?" he asked plaintively.

"Simon is a bun kuh-ooh duh shr sagwa NAN-shung," River explained calmly.

"Yeah, and this is news to who?" Jayne asked, grinning.

"Stupid, horrible, idiot of a schoolboy," Kaylee interpreted with relish, ignoring the mercenary, and Xander glanced at Simon, who had leapt to his feet.

"Don't talk like that, River!"

"Yeah," Kaylee muttered darkly. "You'll sound like a cheap floozy."

Finally showing a hint of remorse through his anger and air of injured innocence, Simon turned to her. "I never -- you must know I never meant to insult you, Kaylee. But River can't behave--"

"I'd stop there," Mal recommended as Kaylee's eyes flashed angrily. "Because you're comin' perilous close to makin' things worse. Now sit back down and eat your gorram meal."

Simon looked from one unsympathetic face to the next, and finally shook his head. "I seem to have lost my appetite," he said coldly, and stalked out of the room.

River's giggle detracted something from the image of injured dignity he was trying to display, and the others watched him go and then returned to the important business of eating.

"Wow, I tell ya," Wash muttered. "They say all the drama happens around the dinner table or the bedroom, but I'm clearly missing out on the good stuff."

A chorus of laughter answered him, relieving the tension that Simon's exit had left, and the conversation continued along lighter topics.


	18. A Gift

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 023-Pride

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

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**Chapter Eighteen  
A Gift**

"That's a fine piece of work," Mal said slowly, examining the long table assembled in Xander's shuttle. It dominated the room, a huge wooden table, long, but also simply massive, with a three inch thick top and two enormous supports under it. Despite its size, it was rather beautiful, though he didn't have much of an idea why, beyond how the wood seemed to glow with inner light, warm and silky-smooth, with joinings so clean he could hardly see the seams. He hadn't spent much time studying furniture and couldn't begin to say what type of table it was, but he didn't have to understand it to admire it and recognize the craftsmanship that went into the making of it. "Don't know that I've ever seen a better. How're you plannin' on getting' it out of here?"

Xander laughed, his eyes caressing the smooth wood. "I haven't glued it yet. I'll take it apart, move it to its destination in pieces, and reassemble on site."

"You got a buyer, yet?"

"Actually, I was hoping to keep it on the ship," he said finally turning from the table to look directly at Mal, brows rising slightly in question. "I sized it to replace the one in the dining room -- it's falling apart."

Mal shook his head. "Like I said, it's a fine piece of work, but I can't see spendin' what you'll doubtless be askin' on a table. There's those that don't mind droppin' the platinum for frivolities, but we on Serenity can't much afford it."

The young man laughed again, shaking his head and dropping one hand to the wood, fingers absently brushing along one edge as he spoke. "No, I'm sorry. I meant as a gift."

"Tryin' to buy our affections?" Mal asked ironically.

Xander grinned. "Nah, if I was doing that, I'd give you the floating disk." He hesitated then admitted, "I like having things I built around. Makes a place feel like home. I can't fit anything big in here, and I wanted to start work with something good-sized. So I looked around, saw your table was too bad off to be worth fixing, though it was a gorgeous piece in its own time, and figured I'd try replacing it. Besides, it'd give you something to remember me by if I ever leave. If you don't like it, that's fine," he added quickly, fingers spreading protectively on the wood as though reassuring it that that possibility was nonsensical. "I can keep it until I find a buyer. It doesn't take up much space when it's disassembled."

"I'm not sayin' I don't like it," he said slowly, trying to read the other man, who looked back evenly, giving nothing away. "Fall over if we get a bit of turbulence. Looks like it could do some damage if it went flyin'."

Xander nodded. "It could. Fortunately, I show occasional signs of common sense, despite what some of my friends would tell you, and took that into account. I checked how the old table's bolted down, and made sure I could fasten this one the same way."

"Wood's wood. What's to say this one won't go th'same was as the old?"

A chuckle answered him, and Xander patted the table confidently, gaze turning back to it as he said, "Wood's wood, sure. But inside of that there's plenty of difference. I'd back this against even a new one like the metal ones I've seen on some ships any day. And your old one was a fine piece of work, I'm sure it lasted you quite a few years. This one's stronger though. Jayne's Vera might take a chunk out of it, but anything short of that, I don't think you'll see more than a few scratches, maybe a chink or two out of the edge, in time, but it'll last you a good long while," he said, thumb caressing the smooth grain of the wood.

Finally, Mal nodded. "Guess it don't much matter if it falls apart a day after you put it in anyway," he said. "Just means I'll get a new normal one -- been meanin' to anyway."

"Sure," Xander agreed, not the slightest hint of taking offense in face or voice. "It's a no-lose situation. So I can put it in on Harvest? I think it'll be easiest to land the shuttle, unload the pieces, and go back in through the cargo bay. Trying to negotiate stairs with the table top would be ... awkward."

"Fine, do whatever ya want with it. Need any help?"

"If you could just move the shuttle, I'd appreciate it. I don't know how to fly it. Other than that, I can manage," he said cheerfully.

"Good then," Mal said, turning to leave. "We'll be landing this evening," he added, before leaving the shuttle. He headed up to the bridge, where Wash was at his station and Zoë lounging on a nearby chair. She straightened her posture as Mal entered, and he caught Wash sending her a dirty look at the move.

"What did he want?" Zoë asked.

Mal shrugged. "Just wanted my okay for him to replace the table."

"And you told him?"

"To help himself. Why not?"

She shrugged. "Men don't do somethin' for nothin'."

"Why shouldn't he?" Wash asked. "It's not like he needs to sell it for cash -- he seems to have plenty without. Why shouldn't he make something and wanna keep it around or give it as a gift?"

Zoë shook her head. "Just don't seem right."

"So you're in favor of ending our relationship with him when his month wears off?" Mal asked curiously.

"Didn't say that," she said. "He's good money like you said. And he ain't done nothin' to make us think he's gonna turn in the fugitives. Guay, River can't get enough of him, and she seems to read folk pretty well. I just got no reason to trust him. I don't like havin' people I don't trust around. It ain't restful."

Mal grinned. "It ain't that. But I tell ya, I think the kid's okay. I'm not sayin' I'd take him on a job or nothin' like that. Not even sayin' I'd want him at my back in anything worse'n a barfight. But, as a passenger, he don't seem liable to cause any trouble, and it's been a while since we had that. I find I'm enjoyin' it."

Wash nodded. "Besides, the man can tell a story," he added. "Told me one about a scientist who brought back dinosaurs for this rich guy; populated a moon with 'em and brought folks to look. But they screwed up, and the dinosaurs went on a rampage -- great story. I'm tellin' ya, he's worth having around."

"Cuz the lord knows we can't live without stories," Mal said dryly.

"Amen to that," Wash agreed, cheerfully ignoring his sarcasm.

Zoë didn't voice an opinion in the matter as she stared out into the stars, a faintly troubled expression on her face.


	19. Dirtside

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 017-Air

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

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**Chapter Nineteen  
Dirtside**

Xander leaned back against the wall to survey his work and a slow smile crept across his face. He nodded in satisfaction, although there was nobody there to see it, and moved around the room to examine the table from every angle. It would do, he thought. He checked the bolts one more time and then started packing up his tools. The others had already gone dirtside for the day. Mal had been the last to leave, moving the shuttle for him to get the table off and then docking it again on Serenity. The crew was hanging out enjoying the local sights and wandering about. There was supposed to be some kind of celebration, so he was looking forward to a good time. Even River and Simon were out, although they'd been warned to stay close to at least one of the others at all times. Xander had said he was going to get a bit of work done and then catch up later on in the evening.

He ferried his gear back up to the shuttle, took a quick shower, and pulled on some clean clothes before heading out to hunt down the others. The first breath of fresh air he got when he stepped outside was glorious. He hadn't gone further than the few feet away from the ramp that Mal had parked the shuttle before; he'd been afraid he wouldn't be able to convince himself to go back in. Serenity had good air; it was nowhere near as bad as he would have thought a spaceship would have if he'd thought about it back in the old days, but compared to I _real /I _ air, it was definitely lacking. His nose flared, and he started following it towards the small town. The scent of cooking meat was on the light breeze, and that was one definite advantage this air had over the ship's, he decided, mouth watering.

Not hurrying, Xander took in the sights as he wandered down the path towards the town. Not that there was a lot to see. A whole lot of corn in one direction and some kind of tall grass in the other. He didn't know what it was, but there was a lot of it. The town itself was a strange mixture of stucco, logs, concrete, plastic, glass, tin, and anything else a person could think to build out of, along with a few that he was pretty sure would never occur to anyone sane. The styles were as diverse as the materials, and the final impression was of a little bit of everything, a place where everyone could find something almost familiar and nobody could find anything just like home. Except those who lived there, of course, he corrected himself. The smell of meat was definitely the strongest in the air, although he caught the occasional whiff of still-living livestock as well.

"Xander!" a voice called out, and he looked over to see Kaylee had just come around a building and was waving at him. "I was just headin' over see if you were comin'. We were startin' to worry you'd work all day!"

"Nah, I'm here," he said cheerfully, making his way towards her. "I just wanted to finish something up. But how's the town?"

"Oh, Three Firs is great," she said enthusiastically. "There's this tavern in the middle of town serves the best steak you've ever tasted. I love Serenity, wouldn't never wanna live nowhere else, but I do miss real food when we're on long trips."

Xander nodded agreement. "I'm with you there. And on that note, how about hooking me up with one of these steaks?"

"Nope," she said.

He blinked "Why not?" he asked, doing his best puppy-dog-eyes, which usually melted the little mechanic.

"'Cuz by now it's not much of a wait till the party starts," she explained. "And it won't do you no good to fill up on food you pay for just before even better food comes free."

"Fair point," he admitted. "Okay, so what do we do till this alleged free food shows up?"

She laughed, grinning up at him as she took his hand and started drawing him towards the center of town. "Alleged free food? You do talk funny, Xander."

He feigned a hurt look. "Me? You guys are the ones who suddenly spout off in Chinese every time you get upset or excited," he added, turning her so they were once again following his nose towards the smell of cooking meat and wood smoke.

"Yeah, and?" she asked him, laughing. "That's normal, Xander. You're the one don't quite fit in like everyone else."

A wave of intense homesickness overtook him, and he would have given anything in the world to have Willow or Buffy turn the corner to face him just then.

"Xander?" Kaylee asked, voice concerned. "I didn't mean nothin' by it, you know that, right? I love how you talk. I was just teasin'."

Pushing back the emotions, he forced himself to smile down at her. "I know, Kaylee. I was just thinking about something else for the second there. Hey, how come you didn't track down the doctor? Are you still angry about his stupid remark the other day?"

A storm cloud passed over her face, but then she laughed. "Naw, it's okay. Just he don't get to spend much time with River out in the open, and I figured they'd wanna be alone for a bit. Maybe I'll get a chance at him tonight during the dancin'," she added hopefully.

His smile losing its forced quality, Xander grinned. "Dancing? I haven't been dancing in ages."

She clapped her hands delightedly. "It's gonna be so much fun! Just don't accept no flowers or nothin' from girls," she added.

He raised his brows. "Do I want to know why?"

"Some o' these small worlds have some pretty interestin' courtship rituals, and if you don't mind yourself, you could find yourself tyin' the knot without even realizin' it," she explained with a grin.

"You tellin' tales 'bout the captain, Kaylee?" Wash's voice made both of them turn to look at him and Zoë, who was right beside him. His eyes danced gleefully and he wore a broad grin. Even Zoë had a glint of amusement in her eyes, and signs of humor slightly softened her stern expression.

"Telling tales," Xander repeated, then his eyes widened in comprehension. "You mean-- I _Mal /I _--" he choked on a bubble of laughter, and tried to force it back down.

"It wasn't funny!" Wash objected, obviously meaning the opposite. "What's more, the poor innocent he wound up married to tried to wreck my ship!"

"This I've got to hear," Xander said. "Come on, now, you can't just say that, and then not tell the whole story. Start at the beginning."

Mock-reluctantly, Wash complied, talking with a joyful enthusiasm that had Xander laughing like mad, only occasionally asking for clarification. Kaylee excitedly interjected corrections or elaborations every so often but mostly just listened with clear enjoyment. The first time Zoë chose to speak, he was so surprised at the dryly humorous comment that it took a moment for her actual words to sink in and helpless laughter to explode out of him. They wound up sitting on one of several large logs that had been pulled up in a huge circle around the bonfire that was filling the center of the town square, several spits turning and causing the mouth-watering aroma that had drawn Xander. Eventually the rest of the crew and more than a couple natives had drawn near as well, enjoying the story. And when it ended, one of the villagers started one of his own.


	20. Dining and Dancing

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 015-Fire

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

**

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**

**Chapter Twenty**  
**Dining and Dancing**

The meat was finally served as the sun was sinking and everyone was bathed red and yellow by the flickering light of the bonfire. Salad, potatoes, and a number of other dishes were brought forth in huge tubs, and Xander found himself thinking that he'd never had a better meal in his life. How much of that was due to all the time spent with nothing but protein bars was debatable, but he was pretty sure he would have found the meal impressive even if he'd been eating good food on a daily basis.

Xander took it easy on the wine that was going around, not comfortable enough in a strange environment to want to be anything but clear-headed, although there was no reason to believe that there was anything more than it seemed going on. If nothing else, given Wash's humorous tale of Mal's wedding, he wanted to be sure he didn't wake up with someone claiming him. Besides, he was outside in the dark, and even though he had seen no hint of a supernatural presence around, he hadn't exactly been here long. Finally, having eaten enough that he couldn't swallow another bite, Xander dropped to sit cross-legged on the ground before the log, leaning back against it with a happy sigh. "Food good," he grunted.

Sounds of agreement came from all around him, and he closed his eyes, enjoying the heat of the fire on his face, drowsing but not quite falling asleep. He came back to full alertness some time later when someone started to play a fiddle and was quickly joined by several more instruments, which, in turn, were almost immediately drowned out by the loud cheering of what seemed like the whole village. He opened one eye and found that a large space had been cleared to one side of the fire, marked off by four tall poles bearing torches to light the area, and several people playing instruments had arranged themselves at the far end of it and were starting to play. Most of the cheering villagers settled back down, but a few of the ones who hadn't completely gorged themselves grabbed partners and headed for the square.

Xander opened his other eye and turned a bit so he could watch more closely. The dancing didn't seem to be any one particular step. Mostly there were individual pairs, here and there a group joining together. There was a lot of shouting and laughter, both from the participants and the watchers, and they seemed to be having a lot of fun. The types of dancing were fairly standard, kind of like the country and western he'd seen now and then back home, but there were variations on the theme. And it was certainly nothing he couldn't handle, having had Anya insist on trying nearly every kind of dancing at least once, and most long enough to get reasonably proficient. He found himself nodding in time to the music, leaning sideways on the log as he watched the dancers.

A shadow made him duck instinctively, and he looked up to see River had jumped off the log and over him. She cast him a grin and then headed for the dance floor. She was incredible, he realized as she jumped and kicked, moving among them with an grace he'd only seen hinted at now and then on Serenity. He continued to watch her, captivated, until a hand on his shoulder made him look up to find Kaylee peering down at him.

"Dance with me!" she called.

"But I ate too much to dance," he mock-complained, shaking his head, though actually he'd sat long enough that he was feeling pretty good, if a little sleepy.

She grabbed his hands and pulled him up. "C'mon!" she called. "It'll be fun!"

He let her drag him onto the floor, and they were quickly swept up in the dance, which didn't release them until the musicians begged a break. Xander and Kaylee stumbled back to the others, flushed and sweating but laughing breathlessly.

"This is fantastic!" Kaylee called out as they approached the rest of the crew. "We should do this more often!"

Xander nodded agreement. "I haven't been dancing in ages," he said. "I've missed it." The others had more or less stayed put while they danced, and were looking on with varying degrees of amusement. Jayne had been drinking steadily since the first glass he was offered, and was now talking in a tone that he probably thought was soft to a buxom girl ensconced on his lap. Mal was looking out over the crowd with a strange smile on his face -- nostalgic, almost. Wash and Zoë were tied up in each other. And Simon, well, Simon was glaring at him as though he'd like to rip his heart out, Xander realized in amusement.

He gulped down some fruit juice, and shook his head. "Way too warm for this side of the log," he said, vaulting over it and collapsing on the other side, where he could feel the cool night air rather than the raging fire. He sat, resting, until the band started up again, and then, before Kaylee could grab him, moved down the log a bit, and rose up on the far side of Simon, who was watching Kaylee with an expression of melancholy. "Ask her to dance," he said.

Simon jumped in surprise, and turned to him angrily. "What?"

"I said, ask her to dance."

"Who?"

Xander rolled his eyes. "You obviously want to be with Kaylee, right now. She clearly wants to dance with you. Ask her to dance!"

"She's made it perfectly clear who she prefers to dance with," Simon said stiffly.

Groaning, Xander shook his head. "No, she made it clear who she's willing to _ask_. I'm easy. I'm a good friend, she knows I like to dance, and if I said I was too tired or something she'd know that it meant I was too tired, not that I didn't want to dance with her. You -- there's a chance you'd say no and then she'd spend the rest of the night miserable. She might not have thought it out that clearly, but that's what's going on. So ask her to dance," he added, as he saw Kaylee looking around, probably for him.

"You really think--" Simon asked, voice fading as he spoke.

"I've known and lived among more women than you've probably ever imagined," Xander stated. "She wants you to ask her to dance, and unless you're a coward or a prick, you'll go over there and do it!"

The doctor stiffened, affronted. "I--"

Xander shoved him, so he had to stand up or fall down in an undignified sprawl. The sudden movement drew Kaylee's eyes, and Xander ducked back a bit, putting Zoë and Wash between her and him, hissing, "Ask her!"

Simon, left with the choice of sitting back down with no clear explanation of why he got up or walking over to her, finally gave in to the inevitable and walked over. Xander moved to where he could see, confident that her eyes would now not be searching him out, and grinned like a Cheshire cat as he saw Kaylee's face light up as Simon bowed over her hand. Mentally patting himself on the back, he hopped back up onto the log as the two headed for the dance floor, hand-in-hand.

"That was good."

He looked over in surprise at the words, not having realized that Wash was paying any attention to anything but Zoë, and found the man looking at him seriously as his wife watched the dancing. "I'm sorry?" Xander said.

"That was a good thing you did," Wash repeated. Zoë turned to focus on the conversation. "He needed that shove. Not that I don't think he'll mess it up before it goes anywhere, but it was still a good move."

Xander shrugged. "Seemed like the least I could do." He hesitated a split second, watching them watching him, and then offered with a hint of a grin, "Are you gonna dance with your wife, Wash, or am I gonna have to do it for you?"

Both of them looked deeply startled, but not at all offended, he was pleased to see. It even surprised a laugh out of Zoë, and he realized that it was the first he'd heard. And that he'd rather like to hear more. It sounded like her trust -- slow, deep, and whole-hearted. She winked one chocolatey eye at him, and turned to her husband. "C'mon, husband-of-mine. We're dancing."

"As you command, dear," he said willingly, rising eagerly and heading for the dancers.

Xander sat out for a time, and then was dragged out by River for a set. He danced with a couple local girls, careful not to accept any tokens of affection from them or do any kinds of dances that he didn't see others doing around him. Eventually Kaylee and Simon let go of each other and he danced another set or two with her. Incredibly, he even did get one dance with Zoë as well, possibly a reward for his audacity in asking, or possibly just because Wash couldn't move his legs any more.

The sun was rising as Xander and the others stumbled back towards Serenity, and Xander was asleep the moment he'd made his way to his shuttle and collapsed across his bed.


	21. Reactions

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 040-First Times

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff**  
**

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**Chapter Twenty-One**  
**Reactions**

Xander woke feeling wrung out and still tired but in a good enough mood. He pulled off his boots, which he hadn't gotten around to taking off the night before, and spent a moment rubbing his aching feet. Stumbling into his bathroom, he allowed himself the luxury of a long, hot shower. Finally, he got dressed and headed down to find a bite to eat. Kaylee was the only one in the dining room, the mechanic sitting far back from the table with her plate on her lap and a glass resting on the floor next to her. Xander blinked.

"It didn't threaten to collapse or something, did it?" he asked, doubtful but concerned. He didn't know how it could possibly collapse -- it was built to withstand Jayne's roughhousing, much less a single plate, but he couldn't think of any other reason why she'd be so far back from it.

At the sound of his voice, Kaylee spun around to face him, clutching at her plate as it threatened to topple off her lap. "What?" she asked.

"The table. Did it wobble or something?"

Her eyes widened. "No, of course not!"

Another yawn broke out of him, and he shook his head resignedly. "Not up for riddles this morning, I don't think. If it's not threatening to fall over, why aren't you eating on it?"

Kaylee stared at him for a long moment, looking as shocked as if he'd suggested eating off the floor. "Eat on it?" she finally managed.

"Well not _on_ it. But -- you know -- putting your plate and glass on it at least?" he said, wondering if there was some weird custom of not using a table after a party that he wasn't aware of.

"On this table?" Kaylee asked blankly.

"There's not another one here," he pointed out.

"But I couldn't!"

Xander shook his head. "I'm gonna go back to my previous statement of: I am _so_ not up for riddles. I don't get it. Spell out to me what's wrong with the table."

"Nothing's wrong with it! It's perfect!"

"Then why--"

"How could I put anything on it? I hardly dare touch it, it's so pretty!" she said. "It's like it's alive, almost, and way too good for me to just _eat_ on."

"Huh," Xander said, blinking. He stared at her for a long moment, then looked at the table, and finally turned back to her. "Huh," he said again. "Um. Well. I think you should just go ahead and put your plate on it," he offered. "I promise that the table can take it."

"But I could scratch it!"

"Chances are you won't," he said reassuringly. "The wood's black locust -- very hard, and you're not likely to hurt it unless you try to. And -- well, sooner or later it's probably going to get scratched. It's no big deal, really."

"No big deal?" she demanded. "How can you say that? This is beautiful, it would be awful if it got messed up!"

He sighed. "Hold on a sec. Maybe this will make more sense after coffee," he said, heading into the kitchen. He filled a mug and returned to the table, sitting down across from her and setting down the mug, blinking at her cringe. They sat in silence for a long moment while Xander sucked down coffee, and he finally shook his head. "Well. That didn't work. I still don't see it," he said. "It's a table. If you don't use it, it's not a table any more. It's just in the way."

"But it's like a work of art!"

Xander laughed. "Kaylee, please. Believe me, here. You won't hurt it. And even if you do, I can fix it."

"But--"

He played his trump card. "Do you really think I made something so weak that it can't stand up to general use?" he asked, flashing her puppy-dog-eyes.

Kaylee caved. "I'm sure it's really strong, but--"

"C'mon, Kaylee, put your plate down," he pleaded.

Reluctantly, she edged forward and very carefully set down the plate, following it with her glass, nervously picking it up again to see if she'd hurt the wood.

Xander laughed again. "Just eat, Kaylee. The table's fine."

Hesitantly, she obeyed, hardly pushing down with her knife as she cut, but slowly working through her meal. Xander rolled his eyes, but leaned back to continue nursing his coffee. She'd get over it, he assumed.

When she was nearly done, the door to the fore passage slammed open, and Jayne stumbled in, heading for the kitchen. And just as he did half the time with the old table, he walked right into the table's corner, banging his thigh and swearing loudly.

"Jayne!" Kaylee's shocked shout made the mercenary wince and squeeze his eyes tightly shut, raising one hand to cover them.

"Kaylee," he said. "Shut up."

"Well, I'm sorry," she said more softly. "But you need ta watch where yer goin'!"

He split his fingers and cracked one eye open to peer out at her dubiously. "What?"

"Yer gonna hurt the table!"

"It's been fallin' apart for months, who cares about the gorram table?" he demanded, slapping his free hand down on it to make his point, and then wincing at the noise.

"Stop it!" Kaylee yelled.

"What in guay's goin' on?" a new voice demanded, and Xander looked over to see Mal, half asleep with his hair sticking up and no shirt on standing at the door with his pistol in his hand.

"Kaylee's run mad as the moon girl," Jayne stated.

"I'm not! He's tryin' to hurt the table!"

Mal looked to Xander as though waiting for him to chime in, and he shrugged in response, spreading his hands to indicate that he had no part in the fight.

"Jayne, don't hurt the table!" Mal barked. "Kaylee, don't be crazy. We got enough crazy on this ship 'thout you joinin' in. And somebody get me some gorram coffee -- if I hafta be awake thanks to your yellin', I at least need coffee."

Xander went to get it, and returned to find Jayne had finally uncovered his eyes and was now staring down at the table in blank astonishment. "It changed!" he said. "Like magic!"

Mal snorted. "Magic it ain't. Xander went and decided our old table wasn't good enough for us and made us a new un," he stated, taking the cup from Xander and taking a large swallow, then nearly choking as he realized how hot it was.

Jayne stared owlishly first at Mal and then at Xander. "You made this?"

Xander nodded.

"And it's gonna gorram break if I _tap_ it?" Jayne demanded. "What the guay do we need a table like that for?"

Xander sighed and shook his head. "I _told_ Kaylee it can take all kinds of abuse," he said. "But she's convinced herself that it'll get messed up if anyone touches it."

Mal turned his glare to his mechanic. "The work you do, does it fall apart if someone else touches it, Kaylee?"

"'Course not, captain," she said, offended. "I make good gear, you know that!"

"Then how come you can't trust another craftsman to do the same? He says his table's good for anything likely ta happen in here, you sayin' he don't know enough to know what his work can take?"

Kaylee's eyes dropped. "Not sayin' that, cap'n."

"Sure what it sounds like," Mal stated, warming to the topic. "Everyone on this ship does somethin', an' you trust them to do their job right. You don't trust Xander to do his?"

Kaylee sighed and shook her head, but finally looked back at Xander. "That's not what I meant," she said. "An' I'm sorry if it sounded like it was. I just mean it's so pretty I can't hardly believe it'll last long."

Xander nodded. "I understand and appreciate the compliment. But if you don't use it, it's worthless."

She nodded reluctant acknowledgment, and took another sip of her drink.

Wash and Zoë showed up behind Mal, Zoë as alert and perfectly-groomed as always, and Wash in about the same state as Mal. Both of them took in the table, and Wash's jaw dropped. He stared at it for a long moment, then looked up at Xander. "Mal said you were puttin' in a table, but this is beautiful."

"It's a table," Jayne grunted, collapsing into a seat and dropping his plate down.

"Looks like good workmanship," Zoë offered. "And for all it's a good-lookin' piece, it looks sturdy, which is more important 'round here." She nodded approval, and moved to feed herself, Wash following in her wake. Kaylee shook her head at such a cavalier attitude towards it, but managed not to say anything.

Xander refilled his coffee, and returned to find River had entered the room. She shot him a beaming smile. "It fits!"

He grinned back at her. "Yeah, I told you it would. Exact same measurements as the old one."

"Hey, how come she's seen it before?" Wash demanded.

Xander laughed. "You know she watches me work, and this has been about all I've worked on since I got my workroom set up. Of course she's seen it."

Simon stumbled into the room, vanished into the kitchen, and returned and sank into a chair, putting down his cup. Then he jerked back in surprise, nearly spilling his coffee. "This isn't our table!"

Shaking his head in amusement, Xander explained, "It is now. The old one was a wreck, and I built a new one. That's what I was doing yesterday after you guys left: installing it."

The doctor got back up to move far enough away to get a good look, and finally turned impressed eyes to Xander. "This is magnificent," he stated. "My father would have been proud to have it in his own home."

Patting the wood affectionately, Xander said, "Thanks! I'm pretty pleased with how it came out."

For a long moment then doctor just stared at him, but finally he shook his head in disbelief and sat back down to sip at his coffee.

Smiling contentedly, Xander leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, enjoying just listening to the conversations around him.


	22. Uninvited Guests

**Carving Out a Future**

**By:** Dreamfall

**Summary:** Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. Xander says he's not looking for trouble. But, then, neither are they. Not usually, leastways. It just always comes calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

**Written for:** NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

**TTH100 prompt:** 043-Castle

**Rating:** FR13/PG13/T

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

**Spoilers:** Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

**Author's Note:** This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. _Way_ less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

**Review Response:** Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

**Uninvited Guests**

Xander watched as Jayne, Mal, and Zoë started off in the mule, heading towards River's Bend in a roundabout way that wouldn't give their location away, and murmured, "Bye-bye. Have fun storming the castle."

"Think they'll make it?"

He looked over, surprised at the soft voice, and grinned as he saw River standing beside him and waving. "It'll take a miracle." He was almost used to her chiming in on his movie quotes from his own time, but it never ceased to send a wash of warmth through him. A sense of not being completely cut off from everything and everyone he ever knew or cared about. It didn't last long, but it was great when it happened.

She grinned. "Yellow ocean waving at the sky," she pointed out.

Xander blinked. "Never seen it myself, but if you say so, you're probably right."

"Wolf pack -- always attack the old and the weak, never the fighters," she added, smile fading.

"They're not planning on attacking anyone," Xander pointed out. "Just picking up a package."

River rolled her eyes, an expression Xander recognized through long experience as that of a teacher unimpressed with a stupid answer, and turned and walked away, leaving him to stare after her uncertainly.

She usually seemed pretty okay in his company. Not a normal seventeen-year-old girl, but then, of the dozens of them he'd met, trained, and taken care of over the years, he'd never known a 'normal seventeen-year-old girl', so that wasn't too big a deal. River was just a bit further from typical than most. He'd talked to Simon about her some. Heard about how the government had seduced her into a special school and then trapped her in some sort of sick experiment that included cutting into her brain and breaking her mind. He didn't know how long Simon would be able to stay ahead of the government, but hoped for the best.

With a sigh, he turned and headed back into the cargo bay, whittling a stick without giving much thought to what he was making. Just playing. They shouldn't be over an hour, and he'd just as soon be here when they returned. Not that he didn't think they could take care of themselves -- he had faith in every one of them. But at the same time, Xander wasn't much used to letting people go off into situations that could well be dangerous without going with them. He knew that this was different, that what they did had nothing to do with him, but at the same time, he just hated watching them go while he sat here doing nothing.

With a sigh, he shaved another curl off his stick, most of his attention on the view outside the door, which was left open in case the others needed speedy entrance. A flicker of motion caught the attention of his left eye, and he sharpened his gaze, hands falling still as he stared out into the high grass.

There. A patch of grass that moved against the wind. And another. A third. He watched carefully and saw the three of them moving slowly towards the ship and one more staying still about a hundred yards away. That one he'd almost missed until a glint of light drew his eyes, and he figured it was probably either a gun's scope or some kind of binoculars. Xander stood up and stretched, carefully non-threatening, and moved towards the side of the room, out of sight from the door. Then he very quietly hit the button on the wall to get voice connection to the bridge, and, before Wash answered, murmured, "Be very quiet. We've got company. Four. One hanging back, probably a sniper for cover, three coming in slowly. How do you want to handle this?" he asked, picking up a roll of packing twine and slipping it into one of several pockets in his trousers.

A vaguely panicked whisper answered, "How do _I_ want to handle it? I don't handle. Zoë handles. Mal handles. Even Jayne handles. Did you close the bay doors?"

"No. Don't want to give away that I saw them. Okay, stay calm and I'll see what I can do. If I signal, you have to close the doors, and take off, move to another spot, and contact the others." He looked around for anything else useful, saw an old sheet half tied over a chrome box, that had been used for protection from scratches, and started methodically tearing it into long strips.

"Why don't we just do that now?" Wash asked.

"Because if this is as far down the list of good landing pads as Mal figured, they've probably got people all over, and these ones-- at least we know where they are. And they might be monitoring the radio," Xander explained, wadding up each of the strips and shoving them into another pocket.

"How're you gonna signal?"

Xander sighed. "If I have to signal, I'll make sure to do something that'll get your attention. Sh. Make sure the others stay put, I don't want anybody coming in in the middle of whatever's going down. And don't radio the mule -- they could be monitoring radio waves."

"Right," Wash said, voice still a hint panicky. "That would be bad."

"Just stay put. Might wanna lock the bridge, just in case they do get onboard. Letting them have the controls would be bad. Can't talk longer -- I'll be back." Turning off the intercom, Xander strolled across the bay to the other side, carefully nonchalant while he examined the area outside, seeing where his four attackers were now. It took two passes to locate all four of them, the sniper in the same place and the other three about a hundred yards out. Xander ambled down the ramp, stretching and looking up at the sky with a smile as though more than a little sick of being cooped up indoors, and saw all three of the moving ones freeze. He wandered away from the ship a bit, deliberately putting one of the tallest patches of grass between him and them, and then dropped to his belly and began crawling.

He moved quickly and silently, carefully not moving the grass any more than necessary, and the times he knew he'd have to hit it more, he timed it with gusts of wind so it wouldn't be quite so obvious. He moved about fifty feet from his starting point, and stopped, perfectly still, listening. For a minute there was dead silence, but then he heard a soft whisper of, "Go," and then the sounds of three people crawling through the grass, spreading out, probably with the intent to attack the position they'd last seen him from three different directions.

Closing his eyes and bowing his head, he concentrated intently on the sounds, and singled out the one closest to him, then focused on the path he was taking. Cautiously, he moved himself to a position where the man should pass straight by about ten feet in front of him. He pulled out the twine, cut off a length, and wrapped both hands in it, making sure there was enough space between them that he could crawl easily. Then he waited.

It didn't take long. The sound drew closer, and he waited, eyes locked on the grass, ears straining for any hint of surprise or change of direction from the man. There wasn't one. He continued on, Xander just barely catching a hint of movement marking his passage. A grim smile on his lips, he waited for the man to pass, then crept out behind him, not quite as careful about the grass, since movement could be blamed on the man he was following, though he still worked to be silent, hardly breathing as he crept forward, gaining on the other man.

When he was close enough, he leapt forward, keeping his body low, and landed on the man's back hands up and around to pull the twine tight against the windpipe. He heard a strangled noise of surprise, hardly louder than the whisper from before, and felt the man clutching at his throat, trying to get air. Quickly, before the man had even begun to struggle beyond the instinctive need to get the twine off his throat, he brought his legs down and around, wrapping them under the other man's so he could unbalance him and keep him on his stomach. He held on grimly as the struggles grew first more frantic and then weaker. At last, the man fell limp, and Xander, taking no chances, transferred the garrotte into his left hand so he could keep pressure on it while still freeing up his right. He used the free hand to reach into his pocket and pull out a wad of cloth, which he stuffed into the man's mouth. Finally releasing the throat, he used another strip of cloth to tie it in place, and drew back out the roll of packing twine, quickly and methodically tying together the man's wrists and ankles, and then the two together in hopes that when he woke up he wouldn't thrash too much.

He quickly checked the man over, took a pistol and a hand-held radio from his belt, a rifle from his shoulder, and two knives, one from his belt and the other from his boot. Then he began crawling along the same trajectory his victim had been following.

"Carson, Gladun, you in place?" a very quiet voice came through the radio.

"Yeah," another voice answered, just as quietly. "Don't see the walker, though."

"Can't see go se, but he's there. Bowler says he ain't moved. Gladun?"

Xander lifted the radio to his lips, and said in a deliberately strangled whisper, "Nearly."

"What's wrong, Gladun?"

"Fightin' off a cough."

"You cough, and I will _personally_ strip the skin from your bones, you hear me? You give away our position and I will take you down."

"Won't," he whispered again. "Nearly there."

"Good."

Xander closed his eyes for a moment, visualizing the area, and, given where he was, worked on figuring out where the other two would be. If he were them, he'd wait about thirty feet or forty back from where they figured he was, until they all got to that point, and then all move in at once. Probably arranged like a Y, so each one could shoot clean and not hit either of the other two, and the person at the center was neatly surrounded. He changed his direction, going to about where he expected the next one of them was.

Just before he got there, he heard his radio murmur, "You there yet, Gladun?"

"No," he croaked, then stuffed the radio into his pocket, muffling it.

"Hurry the fuck up, he's gonna move," he heard the thread of sound of a radio about ten feet ahead and to the right, soft enough that there's no way he would have noticed it if his own had been on.

A grim smile touched his lips, and he approached cautiously until he caught sight of the man stretched out before him, eyes intently focused forward at the clump of grass he had first disappeared into.

Xander wrapped a length of twine around his hands and crept forward. He looped it around his victim's neck and pulled it back tight, putting his knee with most of his weight behind it firmly between the man's shoulders as the man's fingers clutched at the twine. It didn't take long before he could truss the man as he had the first, and he started moving around again to about half way between where he thought the last man would be and the trees. Then he raised the radio to his lips. "Ready," he whispered, again muffling the radio.

"Finally," he barely heard the whisper, but moved a bit so the man would be passing in front of him. "Go."

It took only a few seconds for the man to pass in front of him, and Xander jumped on him as he had the previous. This one fell without a murmur and the crack of bone breaking sounded loud in the careful silence. Xander's eyes widened as he began carefully binding the man, forcing himself to secure him before trying to figure out what had happened. Please, not the spine. Tell me I haven't broken this guy's back. He began to carefully prod the area. The man's foot jerked spasmodically against the bonds, and Xander closed his eyes for a long moment, just focusing on breathing as relief washed over him. It had just been a rib or something.

Quickly gathering the man's gun, knife, and radio, Xander started to make his way cautiously back towards where the sniper was. About halfway back, he heard a frustrated whisper of, "Did you get him?"

"Yeah," he wheezed into the radio.

"Good. Get as close to the ship as you can without giving up cover and wait for my signal to converge and enter."

"Will do," he breathed, slinking through the tall grass.

After a pause of half a minute or so, the radio whispered, "Okay-- go!"

"Carson's not ready -- one sec," Xander whispered into the radio, buying a bit more time.

An impatient, wordless mutter, and he kept crawling as quickly as he could without giving away his position. When he estimated that he was about thirty feet from the sniper, coming in at an angle from the ship, he heard another whisper of, "Go!" A pause as he closed another five feet. "Go, gorram it!"

Then a quiet curse that he heard only through the air and not the radio, and the sound of grass rustling. The man looking around, gun first, Xander figured. Well, it was a lot to hope that he'd be able to sneak up on this one as well. He heard a frantic whisper of, "We got--"

Xander threw himself forward, knocking the man over, the radio flying from his hand. Xander rolled over, coming up still moving so the man's wild shot missed him, and leapt forward again, catching the hot rifle barrel and shoving it up and to the side. The sniper's spare hand came up, grabbing it just above Xander's hold, and they struggled for possession for a long moment before Xander kicked his opponent hard in the groin. He grinned as the man's eyes crossed and his grip released as he sank to the ground, and changed his grip on the rifle slightly so he could slam its butt down on the side of the man's head, wincing at the sickening crack. He smiled as his victim fell limp, then heard the sniper's radio whispering, "Bowler? You got what? You need assistance out there?"

Quickly moving to it, he turned it on, coughing artistically several times, and then saying in a strangled whisper, "We got the ship. Full possession."

"The crew is under control?"

"Bound and gagged. They won't be able to radio the others as they return," he whispered before starting to cough again.

"Good! Just wait, then. We've got no cause to be thinkin' they'll be there long. Just hold for their return."

"Will do," he agreed.

Quickly he moved over to bind and gag the last man, checking his pulse to make sure he hadn't struck too hard. It was a bit fast and thready, and he'd have a helluva headache when he woke up, but he should be fine, so Xander grabbed him by the back of the shirt, and stood up to drag him back towards the ship. He dumped him with the first one he'd caught, and quickly went back to get the other two, taking the most care with the one he'd hit last, trying again to figure out exactly what had happened.

Finally, he boarded Serenity. "We're good," he notified Wash. "Situation's been dealt with. Any reason to bring them on board?"

"Dealt with?" Wash asked, voice still a bit panicky. "What the hell is dealt with?"

"Means that the gentlemen who were sent to take over the ship have been bound and gagged and had the more dangerous of their possessions confiscated, and the people who sent them have been reassured that they're all set, don't need any help, and are ready and waiting for the others to return so they can take them prisoner and return them to their boss. Or possibly kill them. I thought clarifying orders might give me away, so I didn't really ask any questions. Besides, since they're not doing it, it doesn't make much difference what they're not doing, does it?"

"You -- you -- _how_?" the pilot demanded.

"Snuck up on 'em," he said easily. "You think Mal'll want 'em on board? I figured I'd just stack them off to the side outside where I could keep an eye, make sure they don't do anything stupid when they wake up, but if you think the captain'll want to question them or something...?"

"Leave 'em outside," Wash said. "If Mal wants 'em on board, he can deal with it when he gets back."

"Sounds good," Xander agreed. "I'll stay in the cargo bay, but where I can watch them, once I get 'em all in one place, so call me if you need me."

"Yeah," Wash said weakly. "I'll do that."

"Oh, hey," Xander added, thinking of something. "Could you send Simon down?"

"Are you hurt?" Wash asked quickly, concern coloring his voice.

"No, but I hit one of these guys harder than I meant to, and want to make sure he's gonna be okay."

A long moment of silence, and then Wash replied, "He's on his way."


	23. Returning Home

**Chapter Twenty-Three  
Returning Home**

"Almost creepifyin' how smooth that went," Mal muttered as Zoë lifted the mule and they pulled away from the town of Two Rivers. He was turned in his seat, looking back for any sign of pursuit, but none was forthcoming.

"Finally a plan goes right, and he's gotta complain 'bout it," Jayne muttered, shaking his head in disgust, one hand resting protectively atop the large crate securely tied down beside him.

Zoë and Mal exchanged a look. "Thinkin' there's trouble back at Serenity, sir?"

He hesitated, but then said, "Wouldn't be averse to checkin' in."

She nodded sharply and hit a button. "Wash, we're headed back. All well on your end?"

Mal's expression darkened with every second of silence they waited before Zoë called, "Wash, baby, you there?"

When there was still no answer, Zoë hit the accelerator and spun the mule to head straight towards Serenity rather than following the roundabout path she'd used to get to town. Her face was stiffly unemotional, but Mal could read the terror buried in her eyes. "Could be they've got some radio problems," he pointed out.

"Could be," she agreed, banking hard to avoid a formation of rocks, and then resuming her course, ignoring Jayne's startled oath.

"No way they could know where we were settin' down."

"Nope."

"Even if some trouble came callin', they could close up. Like as not, nothin' could get in that wouldn't make a bang loud enough for us to hear back in town."

Zoë nodded, not wasting attention to form words.

"'Less it took 'em by surprise," Jayne pointed out. "Tall grass like this -- sneak right up an' get onboard 'fore anyone knew the difference."

Mal shot him a glare. "BEE-jway, Jayne. Not helping."

"S'what I'd do," the merc persisted. "Then wait for us to get back and we'd be in the position of havin' to break in. Gorram mess is what it'd be. No luck surprisin' 'em if we come in with the mule, either."

"They'll be surprised," Zoë swore, finally catching sight of Serenity and gunning towards the open cargo bay door.

Mal's eyes widened and he gripped side of the mule with one hand, and his seat with the other. "Zoë, bad idea-- won't do 'em no good if we don't survive to help 'em."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn't start braking.

"Ta ma duh!" Jayne screamed. "Yer gonna do their gorram job for 'em!"

Mal's attention was totally locked on Zoë. "Gotta slow down, Zoë."

Suddenly her jaw relaxed and she began carefully breaking. "It's okay," she said. "They're okay. I'm gonna skin him for not answerin' the gorram radio, but they're fine."

"What?" Mal asked, surprised, then followed her gaze away forward and saw Xander standing on the ramp, waving. A pressure released in his chest, and he deliberately unclenched teeth he didn't remember clenching. "False alarm, then."

Zoë navigated the mule up the ramp and sedately parked it in the bay, eyes still flashing with anger born from the ashes of fear. She vaulted out of the mule almost before it was fully stopped and started for the bridge, but was stopped by Xander's voice.

"We had some trouble while you were gone," he said, tone cheerful enough. "Everyone's fine," he added hurriedly, as Mal dropped directly before him and took a threatening step forward. "We figured that probably that guy you were talking about that didn't like you sent people all over and whichever team got lucky would try to take the ship while you guys were out. We should have about ten minutes to get out of here before anyone comes to check up on us -- maybe a little more, you made good time getting back."

Ignoring him after the essential bit of news, Zoë moved across the room to the intercom and called to the bridge. "Wash?"

"Zoë, darling, you're back! Sorry I couldn't answer your call earlier. Xander thought--"

"You left us worryin' you were dead because _Xander thought_?" she asked, voice louder than usual and painfully tense. She spun to stalk towards the carpenter, who backed away from her, hands spread defensively before him.

"I thought they might be monitoring radio waves," he said quickly. "And if Wash answered, they'd know their team failed after all and would have sent more. They might have intercepted you, or sent something bigger than we could take!"

"We're okay, baby," Wash's reassuring voice came through the intercom. "Everyone's okay."

She stopped advancing, and stood rigidly upright, every muscle tense with restrained emotion. "Whole story. Ma shong." She recollected that he didn't know Chinese, and impatiently amended, "Right now."

"I'm thinkin' maybe we'd best remove ourselves from the vicinity," Mal offered. "Mebbe the story can wait till we're away?"

"I'm thinkin' not, sir," Zoë replied firmly. "We need to know what happened."

Xander nodded sharply and his tone was slightly different as he stated with almost military precision, "I was looking out the hold when I noticed the grass moving. I looked more carefully, and found three people approaching the ship and one more staying still a ways out, a sniper."

"You killed 'em?" Mal asked, surprised. He'd seen that the kid could fight okay, but he wouldn't have bet on him against four others, especially not with a sniper in the mix.

A slightly startled look, almost offended, answered him. "I don't kill humans -- not unless I have to."

Jayne blinked. "What do ya gorram kill, then? Cattle?"

Zoë demanded at the same time, "What happened?" The way she bit off each carefully enunciated word emphasized the sentence more strongly than any oath.

"I beat them at their own game," Xander replied with an incongruously boyish grin. "I stalked them back and took them out one by one. They're down there if you want to question them -- they're awake by now, I've been keeping an eye on them."

They all moved down to the ramp and Mal followed Xander's pointing finger to the four carefully trussed up men lying in a line with about five feet separating them from each other a bit away from the ramp. He looked back to Xander, started to say something, but then thought better of it when he realized he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to say. Stalking down the ramp, he went to the nearest of the men, removed the gag, and snapped, "What was yer business with my gorram ship?"

The man glared at him silently.

"Jayne!"

"Yeah, Mal?"

"Ask him what he wanted, would you?"

A grin crossed the mercenary's face and he joined Mal, pulling out the foot-long blade Mal could never remember the name of.

"Taylor sent us!" the man on the ground said hurriedly. "Said you cheated him of a deal a long time ago, wanted a meetin' with you!"

"_I_ cheated _him_?" Mal demanded, outraged. "That tah mah duh hwoon dahn! He--"

"Sir. Is this really the time?"

He looked over at Zoë and sighed. "Fine, then. What were ya plannin' to do, exactly?" he demanded, turning back to the bound man.

"Sneak in, take out the folks on the ship and wait for you to come back. Ambush you," the man stated. "He said there weren't no real fighters left on the ship," he added with an angry glare at Xander. "All the folks could be trusted with guns were s'posed to've gone inta town!"

Xander blinked. "But I didn't use a gun, what are you angry at me for?"

"Maybe 'cause you foiled his plan by upsettin' the rules and takin' him out even without a gun."

Mal turned to Zoë in surprise, and found her finally looking a bit more at ease, a hint of a smirk on her face as she added, turning to the bound man, "After all, gotta be a bit embarassin' to know you an' yer friends got taken' out by one man an' no gun."

"Ruttin' hard t'live down," Jayne agreed, shaking his head in disgust.

"Could I suggest we get out of here?" Xander asked. "I mean, some time can be explained away as them working out their ambush, but if we stick around for much longer, they're going to send reinforcements."

Mal nodded sharply. "Let's get in the sky. Book's waitin' for his delivery." They headed back onto the ship, and Jayne hit the button to pull up the ramp and close the doors, and then they fastened the chains around the mule and hoisted it up into its storage space near the ceiling. Zoë was out the door almost before the chains had been stowed, and Jayne followed a moment after.

"Take us away, Wash," Mal called out.

"Delighted to oblige," the pilot's voice came through the intercom, and within moments they were airborne.

Mal turned to Xander, who was standing uncertainly to one side, and stared at him steadily. "Think you've got a story to tell this evenin'."

The younger man sighed and nodded.

He started to turn, then paused, eyes locked on the carpenter's hands, one of which held a knife and the other a stick of wood he'd apparently been whittling. He raised his brows. "I've known many a man whittles when he's bored, but nary a one just puts a point on a stick o' wood -- the guay's that?"

Xander looked blankly down at his hands, and his eyes widened slightly as he sheathed the knife and moved as if he was going to hide the stick behind his back before catching himself. "I dunno," he said. "I was waiting for you guys to get back rather than concentrating on the work. Just happened, I guess."

Mal's eyes narrowed. There was a grain of truth in that, if he read his man right, but if ever he'd seen a man working to deceive, this was that time. He nodded sharply, turned, and headed for the bridge.


End file.
